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Field-Theoretic Approach to Compartmental Neuronal Networks: Impact of Dendritic Calcium Spike-Dependent Bursting

Audrey O'Brien Teasley

Gabriel Koch Ocker*

  • Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

  • Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

  • *Contact author: gkocker@bu.edu
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PRX Life 4, 013016 – Published 5 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/66wj-xhlg

Abstract

Neurons are spatially extended cells. Different parts of a neuron have specific voltage dynamics. Important types of neurons even generate different spikes in different parts of the cell. Neurons' inputs are also often spatially compartmentalized, with different sources targeting different locations on the cell. Classic mean-field theories for neural population activity, however, rely on point-neuron models with at most one type of spike, the sodium-potassium action potential. Here, we develop a statistical field-theoretic approach to understanding collective activity in networks of compartmental neurons, including those generating multiple types of spikes. We use this to examine simple models of cortical networks with pyramidal cells that generate dendritic calcium spikes. In the weakly coupled regime, we uncover an exact mean-field limit for these networks that maps them to a marked point process. We use this mean-field limit to compare the impact of compartmentalized recurrent excitatory and inhibitory connectivity on the equilibrium phase diagram. This exposes regions of metastability between various activity states, including activity with silent vs active dendrites, with and without inhibitory activity, and oscillations.

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PRX Life 4, 013016– Published 5 February, 2026
  • Received 11 August 2025
  • Accepted 5 January 2026
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