This dataset contains spiketrains from experimental as well as simulated motoneurons that were analysed for the publication Postinhibitory excitation in motoneurons can be facilitated by hyperpolarization-activated inward currents: a simulation study.

Abstract: Postinhibitory excitation is a transient overshoot of a neuron’s baseline firing rate following an inhibitory stimulus and can be observed in vivo in human motoneurons. However, the biophysical origin of this phenomenon is still unknown and both reflex pathways and intrinsic motoneuron properties have been proposed. We hypothesized that postinhibitory excitation in motoneurons can be facilitated by hyperpolarization-activated inward currents (h-currents). Using an electrical circuit model we investigated how h-currents can modulate the postinhibitory response of motoneurons. Further, we analyzed the spike trains of human motor units from the tibialis anterior muscle during reciprocal inhibition. The simulations revealed that the activation of h-currents by an inhibitory postsynaptic potential can cause a short-term increase in a motoneuron’s firing probability. This result suggests that the neuron can be excited by an inhibitory stimulus. In detail, the modulation of the firing probability depends on the time delay between the inhibitory stimulus and the previous action potential. Further, the strength of the postinhibitory excitation correlates with the amplitude of the inhibitory stimulus and is negatively correlated with the baseline firing rate as well as the level of input noise. Hallmarks of h-current activity, as identified from the modeling study, were found in 50 % of the human motor units that showed postinhibitory excitation. This study suggests that h-currents can facilitate postinhibitory excitation and act as a modulatory system to increase motoneuron excitability after a strong inhibition.

Instructions: This data repository is structured as follows:

The folder 'experimental_data' contains the pre-processed data of 9 subjects and two experimental protocols, the results of the analysis performed for this study, the manually determined excitation amplitudes and a READ_ME. The folder 'scripts_data_analysis' contains the script required to replicate the PSF clustering used in the publication, a script to replicate the corresponding figures and a READ_ME. The folder 'simulation_results' contains the simulation results presented in this publication. The folder 'scripts_simulation' contains the code required to run the simulations performed for this publication. Further it contains a cellml code of the motoneuron model to facilitate model-sharing.

How to obtain the data shown in the manuscript:

The analysis of the experimental data presented in the manuscript can be replicated by applying scripts_data_analysis/analyze_data.m to the datasets contained in experimental_data. The simulation data presented in the manuscript can be replicated by applying the following steps:

Run scripts_simulation/Run_PSC2spiketrain_parallel_rebound.m Apply scripts_data_analysis/analyze_data.m to eval.mat

The figures presented in the manuscript can be replicated by running scripts_data_analysis/create_figures_paper.m

MATLAB, R2021a