In a passive pyramidal cell model subject to an electric field, soma and basal dendrites get oppositely polarized than apical dendrites. This later are the most responsive to low frequency stimulation.

<p>(A) Considered neuron morphology with color coding the distance of each segment to the soma. (B) (Bottom) Membrane polarization of the passive cell due to positive and negative steps of DC electric field (orange, top). (C) Polarization due to a positive 1 V/m field plotted as the function of the distance from the soma. For clarity basal dendrites are plotted with negative distance. (D) Example polarization at the apical dendrites (blue star, bottom) and soma (green circle, middle) due to an an oscillating field of diverse frequencies (orange, top). (E) Frequency-dependent sensitivity to AC fields of different cell segments, namely basal, proximal dendrites and soma (left panel) and distal apical dendrites (right). Colors of the polarization (B) and field sensitivity (E) correspond to the distance from the soma as depicted in A. The red dashed lines correspond to the soma.