Noise-enhanced transmission of spike trains in the neuron

Équipe Signaux Systèmes et Applications, Faculté des Sciences, Université d'Angers, 2 Boulevard Lavoisier, 49000 Angers, France

Received: 9 January 1996
Accepted: 1 July 1996

Abstract

We consider the transmission of spike trains in a conductance-based neuron model. A superposition of periodic coherent trains impinge on the neuron, but in a number that is too small to trigger an output response. We then show that addition of incoherent noise trains on the input allows a neuron response exhibiting correlation with the coherent input trains. Furthermore, the number of noise inputs can be increased up to an optimal value where the coherent part of the response reaches a maximum. This property of noise-enhanced signal transmission can be related to the phenomenon of stochastic resonance. The present study demonstrates for the first time the possibility of stochastic resonance in a realistic situation of multiple spike train transmission by the neurons, and it assigns a useful role in information processing to spontaneous random neuron spiking.