T. Shimokawa et al., Time-scale matching in the response of a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron model to periodic stimulus with additive noise, PHYS REV E, 59(3), 1999, pp. 3427-3443
We study the response of a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron model to subthre
shold periodic stimulus with additive noise. Previous works have shown that
the interspike interval distribution at the modulation period goes through
a maximum with increasing either the noise intensity or the period. This m
aximum appears when the stimulation period is close to the mode of the inte
rspike interval distribution in the absence of the modulation. This phenome
non is called time-scale matching. In this paper, we examine time-scale mat
ching in the response to periodic signals with and without resetting of the
input phase at each firing. For the case without resetting, we calculate t
he phase distribution by iterating a stochastic phase transition operator.
This operator extends the phase transition curve commonly used in the analy
sis of the response of deterministic oscillators to periodic stimulation. W
e also examine the dependence of the time-scale matching on the input ampli
tude. Furthermore, we consider the response of the system in the frequency
domain. It is known that the signal-to-noise ratio derived from the power s
pectral density goes through a maximum with increasing noise intensity. We
show that the signal-to-noise ratio also has a hump as a function of the pe
riod, and discuss its relation to time-scale matching. This work helps in c
larifying conditions whereby noise can improve the detection of a weak peri
odic signal by neurons through time-scale matching. [S1063-651X(99)07703-X]
.