Qualitative behavior and robustness of dendritic trafficking

Abstract

The paper studies homeostatic ion channel trafficking in neurons. We derive a nonlinear closed-loop model that captures active transport with degradation, channel insertion, average membrane potential activity, and integral control. We study the model via dominance theory and differential dissipativity to show when steady regulation gives way to pathological oscillations. We provide quantitative results on the robustness of the closed loop behavior to static and dynamic uncertainties, which allows us to understand how cell growth interacts with ion channel regulation.