The Role of Noise in Sensory Information Transfer

Abstract

We consider the interpretation of time series data from firing events in periodically stimulated sensory neurons. The neurons are represented as nonlinear switching elements embedded in a Gaussian noise background. The cooperative effects arising through the coupling of the noise to the modulation are examined, together with their possible implications in the features of Inter-Spike-Interval Histograms (ISIHs) that are ubiquitous in neurophysiological experimental data. Our approach provides the simplest possible interpretation of the ISIHs and has been found to reproduce the salient features of experimental ISIHs- One such comparison, between very recent data from experiments performed in St. Louis, on the mechanoreceptor in the tailfan of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, and analog simulations on a simple nonlinear excitable neural model is presented to elucidate this point.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA273580

Entities

People

  • Adi R. Bulsara
  • F. Moss

Organizations

  • Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cells
  • Experimental Data
  • Fish
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Information Transfer
  • Intensity
  • Membrane Potentials
  • Military Research
  • Neurons
  • Noise
  • Probability
  • Probability Density Functions
  • Resonance
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistical Distributions

Readers

  • Neuroscience
  • Statistical inference.
  • Theoretical Analysis.