• Rasband and Peles (2015) - The Nodes of Ranvier- Molecular Assembly and Maintenance. I am wondering why Kv channels and Nav channels are spatially segregated.
• Misonou et al (2004) - Regulation of ion channel localization and phosphorylation by neuronal activity. About Kv2.1 but most likely quite general.
• Park et al (2006) - Graded Regulation of the Kv2.1 Potassium Channel by Variable Phosphorylation. More about phosphorylation.
• Wimmer et al (2010) - Axon initial segment dysfunction in epilepsy.
• Bradley and Somjen (1961) - Accommodation in motoneurones of the rat and the cat. One of the first papers about threshold adaptation (in relation with my papers on the subject: Spike-threshold adaptation predicted by membrane potential dynamics in vivo and Impact of Fast Sodium Channel Inactivation on Spike Threshold Dynamics and Synaptic Integration).
• Ahissar and Assa (2016) - Perception as a closed-loop convergence process. Related to subjective physics.
• Zhang et al (2016) - Optical electrophysiology for probing function and pharmacology of voltage-gated ion channels. Sounds cool!
• Hiwatashi et al (1980) - Restoration of membrane excitability in a behavioral mutant of Paramecium caudatum during conjugation and by microinjection of wild-type cytoplasm. Very intriguing!

After a two weeks break:

• Zhang and Rasband (2016) - Cytoskeletal control of axon domain assembly and function. Nice looking review.
• Ko et al (2016) - Serotonin modulates spike probability in the axon initial segment through HCN channels. There was some previous related work by Florence Cotel et al. (2013).
• Bird and Cuntz (2016) - Optimal Current Transfer in Dendrites. The paper includes in the supplementary information a derivation of the extended cable equation with variable diameter. Otherwise I think the approach might be quite interesting for the axon too.
• Srivastava et al (2016) - Motor control by precisely timed spike patterns. The demonstration was made previously by Vladimir Brezina in invertebrate muscles that muscle contraction is highly sensitive to single spikes, but this one is in vertebrates.
• Grunwald and Vitanyi (2010) - Shannon Information and Kolmogorov Complexity. I already knew about Kolmogorov complexity, but I just realized it might be an interesting alternative definition of information to use in neuroscience; in particular you can define the information in a single stimulus (eg image), in contrast with Shannon information (a single stimulus is just one element of a set).
• Jonas and Kording (2016) - Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor. None of the epistemological points made here are original, but what I like in this paper is it is a concrete demonstration that the reductionist methods used in systems neuroscience (tuning curves, connectomes etc) are just not going to work. It relates to many texts I have written on this blog, for example: Can we understand the brain by measuring its structure? And the series What is computational neuroscience? It is also related to the point I try to make in my essay Philosophy of the spike, that rate-based descriptions of neural activity are not causal, mechanistic descriptions. Think about having a rate-based view for transistors: you certainly could just as you can with neurons, but that won't get you to any mechanistic level of understanding, just tuning curves and transistor correlates.

This week I wonder how Paramecium seems to move and spike randomly in a homogeneous environment while the electrophysiology seems deterministic (last 3 papers).

• Bezanilla and Armstrong (1977) - Inactivation of the Sodium Channel. I – Sodium current experiments. Experiments and model on the dependence of inactivation on activation.
• Connolly and Kerkut (1983) - Ion regulation and membrane potential in tetrahymena and paramecium. A review on ionic fluxes in Paramecium.
• Moolenaar et al (1976) - Membrane noise in Paramecium. 1/f noise due to leak channels.
• Majima (1980) - Membrane potential fluctuation in paramecium. Hints of channel cooperativity.
• Nakaoka et al (2009) - Spontaneous fluctuation of the resting membrane potential in Paramecium - amplification caused by intracellular Ca2+.

• Bohmer et al (2005) - Ca2+ spikes in the flagellum control chemotactic behavior of sperm. Again calcium spikes involved in single cell locomotion.
• Kaupp (2008) - Mechanisms of Sperm Chemotaxis.
• Mayr (1961) - Cause and Effect in Biology. Biological epistemology.
• Tadross et al (2008) - Mechanism of Local and Global Ca2+ Sensing by Calmodulin in Complex with a Ca2+ Channel. Ion channel regulation by Ca2+.
• Long et al (2016) - Run and tumble navigation can be very fast. Theoretical work on unicellular locomotion.

• Hook and Hildebrand (1979) - Excitation of paramecium:
  A model analysis. A (complicated and unusual) model of Paramecium action potential.
• McLaughlin (1977) - Electrostatic Potentials at Membrane-Solution Interfaces. All you ever wanted to know about Donnan potentials and the like.
• Oertel et al (1977) - Separation of membrane currents using a Paramecium mutant. Using genetics to isolate ionic currents.
• Machemer (1989) - Cellular behavior modulated by ions: Electrophysiological implications. Adaptation of Paramecium to the extracellular ionic environment.

• Marin et al (2016) - Amyloid-β plaques disrupt axon initial segments. The AIS involved in Alzheimer?
• Noble and Stein (1966) - The threshold conditions for initiation of action potentials by excitable cells. A classic paper on excitability: interesting because it's wrong for normal spike initiation (ie with a soma + AIS).
• Meliza et al (2014) - Estimating parameters and predicting membrane voltages with conductance-based neuron models. How to fit Hodgkin-Huxley models to traces.
• Schulman (1993) - Coding for Interactive Communication. Possibly a more interesting way to frame the “neural coding” problem.

• Szostak et al (2016) - Hypercycle. Review of a theory of life.
• Windhorst (2007). Muscle proprioceptive feedback and spinal networks. A review.
• Dunn et al (2016). Neural Circuits Underlying Visually Evoked Escapes in Larval Zebrafish.
• Clay (2005). Axonal excitability revisited. Beyond the Hodgkin-Huxley model of the squid giant axon.

• Eisenberg and Johnson (1970) - Three-dimensional electrical field problems in physiology. The cable equation in 3D.
• Kramer and Myers (2013) - Osmosis is not driven by water dilution. Good to know!
• Leite (2016) - The Actin-Binding Protein α-Adducin Is Required for Maintaining Axon Diameter. Controlling the diameter of axons.
• Pablo et al (2016) - Polarized localization of voltage-gated Na+ channels is regulated by concerted FGF13 and FGF14 action. How sodium channels end up in the axon vs. soma.
• Hill et al (1977) - Laser interferometer measurement of changes in crayfish axon diameter concurrent with action potential. Measurement of a propagating mechanical wave.

• Martinac et al (2008) - Ion Channels in Microbes. Ion channels everywhere!
• Ito and Sagawa (2015) - Maxwell’s demon in biochemical signal transduction with feedback loop. Chemotaxis in E. Coli.
• Howart et al (2012) - Updated energy budgets for neural computation in the neocortex and cerebellum. Energy consumption of neurons.

After a few weeks away from the lab, here is a selection of papers:

• Waxman and Swadlow (1977) - The conduction properties of axons in central white matter. Relation between diameter and conduction velocity, among other things.
• Hodgkin (1951) - The Ionic Basis of Electrical Activity in Nerve and Muscle. An excellent review!
• Hodgkin and Huxley (1952) - Currents carried by sodium and potassium ions through the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo. Fig. 9 nicely shows the exponential dependence of the sodium conductance on membrane potential at hyperpolarized voltages.
• Standen and Stanfield (1982) - A Binding-Site Model for Calcium Channel Inactivation that Depends on Calcium Entry. A simple model of calcium-mediated inactivation of calcium channels.