A chain model for signal detection and transmission

Department of Physics, East China Normal University - Shanghai, 200062, China

^(a) zhliu@phy.ecnu.edu.cn

Received: 31 January 2013
Accepted: 19 March 2013

Abstract

The human brain can recognize various signals by different senses, but how these signals are detected and then transmitted by neuron networks is not completely clear so far. We here present a simplified chain model to study the mechanism of signal detection and transmission in brain, where the first oscillator in the chain takes charge of signal detection and the others for signal transmission. We find that the response of an oscillator to external signal, Q, depends on both the received external signal and the amplitude of the oscillator's oscillatory behavior. We introduce a normalized response, Q′, to describe the contribution purely from the external signal. We reveal that there is a quantitative relationship between Q′ and frequency-locking, which does not exist in the measure of Q. Moreover, we interestingly find that it is possible for signal to be even recovered in the transmission process when the signal is not completely detected at the first oscillator of the chain. This finding may provide a new insight into the detection and transmission of signals in brain.