HOW GOOD ARE FORMAL NEURONS FOR MODELING REAL ONES

A formal neuron has been studied mathematically. The spiking behaviour of a single neuron has been considered and the influence of the other neurons has been replaced by an average activity level. Four differen t kinds of spiking behaviour are predicted by the model: B (bursts), C (continuous), P (periodic) and S (silent) neurons and several real ne urons can be classified within these four categories. Some properties of the spiking neuron are calculated: 1) the time between spikes, 2) t he spike train length and 3) the silent time. Because these magnitudes can be measured in the laboratory, an experimental validation of the model is proposed.