Figure 3. Construction of quantitative neuron models.

Top, neuron parameters including the channel conductances, gate thresholds and kinetic parameters are extracted by assimilating electrophysiological recordings of interneurons of the songbird high vocal centre with interior point optimisation (green curve). The current protocol used to stimulate the neuron was generated by the chaotic Lorenz system. Bottom, predicted response made by integrating the experimental current protocol with the completed neuron model (red curve). The prediction is compared with the observed membrane voltage (black curve). This demonstrates the power of data assimilation for constructing predictive neuron (and network) models (after Meliza et al. 2014).