Single neuron dynamics during experimentally induced anoxic depolarization

We studied single neuron dynamics during anoxic depolarizations, which are often observed in cases of neuronal energy depletion. Anoxic and similar depolarizations play an important role in several pathologies, notably stroke, migraine, and epilepsy. One of the effects of energy depletion was experimentally simulated in slices of rat cortex by blocking the sodium-potassium pumps with ouabain. The membrane voltage of pyramidal cells was measured. Five different kinds of dynamical behavior of the membrane voltage were observed during the resulting depolarizations. Using bifurcation analysis of a single cell model, we show that these voltage dynamics all are responses of the same cell, with normally functioning ion channels, to particular courses of the intra- and extracellular concentrations of sodium and potassium.