Contact Us: The NCP Lab is located in the 3rd (Zen) Yard in the campus of Beijing Normal University , Beijing, China. Dr. Xiaohui Zhang ; Phone: (010) 5880-4978.
Exp. Tools: We use multiple approaches including electrophysiology (in vivo and slices), optogenetics, cellular imaging, and transgenic mouse models of brain diseases.
Research Direction
- Our research is focused on elucidating corticohippocampal circuitry mechanisms that underlie associative learning, spatial navigation and critical period plasticity of the brain.
Dendritic computations captured by a new point-neuron model
Modeling single-neuron dynamics is the first step to quantitatively understand brain computation. Yet, the existing point neuron models fail to capture dendritic effects. Using realistic neuronal simulations, theoretical analyse and electrophysiological experiments, we have developed an effective point neuron model that incorporates additional synaptic integration currents arising from the nonlinear interaction between synaptic currents across spatial dendrites. This model captures the somatic voltage response of a neuron with complex dendrites and is capable of performing rich dendritic computations.