Technique for eliminating nonessential components in the refinement of a model of dopamine neurons

A technique for model reduction is applied to a mathematical model of the midbrain dopamine neuron. The relevance of calcium-mediated inactivation of L- and N-type currents in a mathematical model of the midbrain dopamine neuron was tested for two firing patterns exhibited by these cells in vitro. We found that calcium-mediated inactivation of L- and N-type currents could be removed without causing significant changes in both the slow oscillatory potential (SOP) and the apamin-induced square-wave patterns.