NENS220

Problem Set #1

a) Familiarize yourself with NEURON by doing the NEURON tutorial linked on the course webpage.

b) Part of the complexity and richness of the nervous system emanates from its nonlinear properties. Starting from the code and information you learned through part B of the tutorial, generate an f/i (frequency as a function of injected current) curve, where frequency is the number of spikes per unit time elicited by the injected current.

c) Do you see any saturation—either a current below which you get no response or a current above which you get an unchanging response? With this in mind, comment on the linearity of the f/i curve.

· Recall the definition of a linear system: af(x) + bf(y)= f(ax + by).

d) Can you manipulate the f/i curve? If so, based upon what you have learned in lectures so far, justify what you see.

Make sure to turn in your f/i curves (with the axes labeled), noting the changes you made from the source code to generate those curves, as well as your explanation of what you see and justification for what you did.