Modeling indicates that low-conductance channels with slow kinetics underlie the kainate receptor-mediated EPSC. A, Diagram of the model neuron with one explicitly modeled dendrite and four lumped dendrites. A patch electrode located on the soma is indicated, as is the position of three synapses at different electrotonic locations. Inset at top, Kinetic scheme used for the channels underlying the synaptic conductance. B, AMPAR-mediated simulated mean EPSC (red) from synapse 1 (at 15 μm from soma) generated by the realistic model and superimposed on an experimentally recorded evoked AMPAR-mediated mEPSC. C, The extreme model neuron that was generated to produce slow simulated EPSCs from fast AMPAR-like currents applied at synapse 3. Inset at top, Realistic model shown at the same scale for comparison. D, Simulated EPSC (red) generated by a fast AMPAR-like EPSC injected at synapse 3 superimposed on the slow kainate receptor-like simulated EPSC (black) for the realistic model (left) and extreme model (right). E, Superimposed simulated AMPAR-mediated EPSCs when recorded using the simulated patch electrode from the realistic model from synapses located at 0 μm (orange), 15 μm (yellow), 31 μm (green), 50 μm (blue), 77 μm (dark blue), and 100 μm (purple) from the soma. The EPSC at the soma not filtered by the recording electrode from a synapse located at 0 μm (perfectly clamped; red) is also shown for comparison. F, Binned squared difference current (variance) plotted versus current amplitude from peak to the end of the simulated AMPAR-mediated EPSCs obtained from synapses at 0, 15, 31, 50, 77, and 100 μm and the unfiltered currents (same colors as for E; 200 traces used for each data set; lines are parabolic fits to the data). G, The 10-90% rise time of simulated AMPAR-mediated EPSC (circles) and estimated γ (triangles; expressed as percentage of input value) plotted versus location of synapse. Lines are sigmoidal fits to the data. H, Simulated mean EPSC (red) from synapse 1 generated by the realistic model using the kainate receptor kinetic scheme (slow kinetics, small γ) and superimposed on an experimentally recorded evoked kainate receptor-mediated EPSC. I-K, Analysis of the effects of electrotonic location on NSFA of simulated kainate receptor-mediated EPSCs (as for E-G).