Basic mechanisms of coding stimulus intensity in the olfactory sensory neuron

摘要

A basic deterministic and stochastic model of the olfactory sensory neuron under steady-state conditions is proposed. It is composed of three modules that describe the main steps of the neuron response to a stimulation, i.e. interaction of odorant molecules with membrane receptor sites and opening of dendritic ion channels, generation and passive propagation of receptor potential along dendrite, and conversion of receptor potential into a train of action potentials at the axon initial segment. Explicit mathematical descriptions of these mechanisms are given and their usefulness in interpreting experimental observations is discussed.