Synaptic noise

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Synaptic noise describes the continuous and noisy "bombardment" of central neurons by synaptic inputs, especially in vivo. In particular, the cerebral cortex in vivo is characterized by sustained and irregular neuronal activity, which combined with the very high cortical interconnectivity, is responsible for a considerable and noisy synaptic activity in any given cortical neuron. Intracellular recordings of the membrane potential have characterized this intense activity, which sets neurons into a high-conductance state (because of the large number of synaptic inputs, each of which evokes a conductance increase in the membrane). Numerous computational models and theoretical studies have investigated high-conductance states and synaptic noise, and found numerous consequences on neuronal processing; the presence of synaptic noise may fundamentally change the integrative properties of neurons, and even may confer several computational advantages for information processing (see details in the articles High-Conductance State and Neuronal Noise in Scholarpedia).