Interactions between slow and fast conductances in the Huber/Braun model of cold-receptor discharges

Transitions between different types of impulse patterns, according to exper imentally recorded cold-receptor discharges, can successfully be mimicked w ith a minimal Hodgkin-Huxley-type simulation, here referred to as the Huber /Braun cold-receptor model. The model consists of two sets of simplified de - and repolarizing ionic conductances responsible for spike generation and slow-wave potentials, respectively. Over a broad temperature range, spike p atterns are determined by the periodicity of subthreshold oscillations. At low temperatures, however, the periodicity of the pattern is destroyed and then appears again but with different patterns of different rhythmicity. We demonstrate that these complex transitions originate from the interactions between slow-wave and spike-generating currents. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.