Izhikevich Neurons, Part 5: Post-inhibitory rebound
Part 5: Post-Inhibitory Rebound Post-Inhibitory Rebound (also called rebound excitation) is the flip side of the usual excitation story. Instead of firing because you pushed the neuron up, the neuron fires because you stopped pushing it down. Hold a cell hyperpolarized long enough, release it, and you get a spike, or a burst of spikes. It's a signal for the offset of inhibition rather than the onset of excitation, and it's a handy trick for a circuit: it lets a cell announce "the brakes just came off" without needing any excitatory input at all. Neurons in VTA and SNc do this, and it shows up all over thalamus too (called low threshold spikes in the 80s). Classically thalamocortical relay cells are the textbook case, where a burst of inhibition from reticular thalamic neurons is followed by a rebound burst that helps drive oscillations during sleep spindles. Izhikevich Neurons are perhaps one of the simplest models of Post-inhibitory rebound. Lets see how to c...
