The term high-conductance state describes a particular state of
neurons in specific states of the
brain
The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...
, such as for example during
wakefulness
Wakefulness is a daily recurring brain state and state of consciousness in which an individual is conscious and engages in coherent cognition, cognitive and behavioral responses to the external world.
Being awake is the opposite of being asleep, ...
, attentive states, or even during some
anesthetized states.
In individual neurons, the high-conductance state is formally defined by the fact that the total
synaptic conductance received by the neuron is larger than its natural resting (or leak) conductance, so in a sense the neuron is "driven" by its inputs rather than being dominated by its intrinsic activity. High-conductance states have been well characterized experimentally, but they also have motivated numerous theoretical studies, in particular in relation to the considerable amount of "noise" present in such states. It is believed that this "
synaptic noise" has determinant properties on neuronal processing, and even may confer several computational advantages to neurons (see details in the articl
High-Conductance Statein
Scholarpedia).
The term high-conductance state is also used to describe specific states of single
ion channel
Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by Gating (electrophysiol ...
s. In this case, the high-conductance state corresponds to an open state of the channel which is associated with a particularly high conductance compared to other states.
References
External links
High-Conductance Statearticle in
Scholarpedia
Neuroscience
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