@article {70244,
	title = {Fast dendritic excitations primarily mediate back-propagation in CA1 pyramidal neurons during behavior},
	journal = {bioRxiv},
	year = {2026},
	month = {2026 Jan 03},
	abstract = {<p>Dendrites integrate synaptic inputs to trigger action potentials, and dendrites carry back-propagating action potentials (bAPs) to synapses where these signals contribute to plasticity. Despite strong evidence for a rich repertoire of nonlinear dendritic excitations, the in vivo roles of these excitations in dendritic integration and back-propagation remain uncertain. Here, we used high-speed voltage imaging through a chronically implanted microprism to map membrane potential dynamics from basal to apical dendrites of CA1 neurons in mice navigating in a virtual reality environment. Despite complex dendritic branch morphology, the dynamics were largely captured by 2 or 3 electrical compartments: basal, soma, and apical. Fast dendritic spikes almost always started from bAPs, indicating that dendritic spikes are primarily a consequence rather than a cause of somatic spiking. These fast spikes sometimes triggered slower apical dendritic plateau depolarizations, which drove complex spikes at the soma. We found that the biophysics of dendritic excitability determined the distribution of simple and complex spikes across a place field. Our results show how CA1 pyramidal neurons convert synaptic inputs to spiking outputs and suggest a primary role of dendritic nonlinearities in mediating activity-dependent plasticity.</p>
},
	doi = {10.64898/2026.01.03.696606},
	url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2026/01/03/2026.01.03.696606},
	author = {Lee, Byung Hun and Park, Pojeong and Wu, Xiang and Wong-Campos, J. David and Xu, Junjie and Xiong, Marley and Qi, Yitong and Huang, Yi-Chieh and Itkis, Daniel G. and Plutkis, Sarah E. and Lavis, Luke D. and Cohen, Adam E.}
}
@article {69460,
	title = {Dendritic excitations govern back-propagation via a spike-rate accelerometer},
	journal = {Nature Communications},
	volume = {16},
	year = {2025},
	month = {2025 Feb 04},
	abstract = {<p>Dendrites on neurons support nonlinear electrical excitations, but the computational significance of these events is not well understood. We developed molecular, optical, and analytical tools to map sub-millisecond voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons under diverse optogenetic and synaptic stimulus patterns, in acute brain slices. We observed history-dependent spike back-propagation in distal dendrites, driven by locally generated Na+ spikes (dSpikes). Dendritic depolarization created a transient window for dSpike propagation, opened by A-type KV channel inactivation, and closed by slow NaV inactivation. Collisions of dSpikes with synaptic inputs triggered calcium channel and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent plateau potentials, with accompanying complex spikes at the soma. This hierarchical ion channel network acts as a spike-rate accelerometer, providing an intuitive picture of how dendritic excitations shape associative plasticity rules.</p>
},
	doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-55819-9},
	url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/05/18/2023.06.02.543490},
	author = {Park, Pojeong and Wong-Campos, David and Itkis, Daniel G. and Lee, Byung Hun and Qi, Yitong and Davis, Hunter and Antin, Benjamin and Pasarkar, Amol and Grimm, Jonathan B. and Plutkis, Sarah E. and Holland, Katie L. and Paninski, Liam and Lavis, Luke D. and Cohen, Adam E.}
}
