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Coupled effects of channels and synaptic dynamics in stochastic modelling of healthy and Parkinson's-disease-affected brains

Our brain is a complex information processing network in which the nervous system receives information from the environment to quickly react to incoming events or learns from experience to sharp our memory. In the nervous system, the brain states translate collective activities of neurons interconnected via synaptic connections. In this paper, we study coupled effects of channels and synaptic dynamics under the stochastic influence of healthy brain cells with applications to Parkinson's disease (PD). In particular, we investigate the effects of random inputs in a subthalamic nucleus (STN) cell membrane potential model. The STN bursting phenomena and parkinsonian hypokinetic motor symptoms are closely connected, as electrical and chemical maneuvers modulating STN bursts are sufficient to ameliorate or mimic parkinsonian motor deficits. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the STN is an important surgical technique used in the treatment to improve PD symptoms. Our numerical results show that the random inputs strongly affect the spiking activities of the STN neuron not only in the case of healthy cells but also in the case of PD cells in the presence of DBS treatment. Specifically, the existence of a random refractory period together with random input current in the system may substantially influence an increased irregularity of spike trains of the output neurons.