Transduction of temporal patterns by single neurons

As our ability to communicate by Morse code illustrates, nervous systems ca n produce motor outputs, and identify sensory inputs, based on temporal pat terning alone. Although this ability is central to a wide range of sensory and motor tasks, the ways in which nervous systems represent temporal patte rns are not well understood. I show here that individual neurons of the lob ster pyloric network can integrate rhythmic patterned input over the long t imes (hundreds of milliseconds) characteristic of many behaviorally relevan t patterns, and that their firing delays vary as a graded function of the p attern's temporal character. These neurons directly transduce temporal patt erns into a neural code, and constitute a novel biological substrate for te mporal pattern detection and production. The combined activities of several such neurons can encode simple rhythmic patterns, and I provide a model il lustrating how this could be achieved.