Neuronal Synchronization Can Control the Energy Efficiency of Inter-Spike Interval Coding

Abstract

The role of synchronous firing in sensory coding and cognition remains controversial. While studies, focusing on its mechanistic consequences in attentional tasks, suggest that synchronization dynamically boosts sensory processing, others failed to find significant synchronization levels in such tasks. We attempt to understand both lines of evidence within a coherent theoretical framework. We conceptualize synchronization as an independent control parameter to study how the postsynaptic neuron transmits the average firing activity of a presynaptic population, in the presence of synchronization. We apply the Berger-Levy theory of energy efficient information transmission to interpret simulations of a Hodgkin-Huxley-type postsynaptic neuron model, where we varied the firing rate and synchronization level in the presynaptic population independently. We find that for a fixed presynaptic firing rate the simulated postsynaptic interspike interval distribution depends on the synchronization level and is well-described by a generalized extreme value distribution. For synchronization levels of 15% to 50%, we find that the optimal distribution of presynaptic firing rate, maximizing the mutual information per unit cost, is maximized at ~30% synchronization level. These results suggest that the statistics and energy efficiency of neuronal communication channels, through which the input rate is communicated, can be dynamically adapted by the synchronization level.

Memristive Hodgkin-Huxley Spiking Neuron Model for Reproducing Neuron Behaviors

“…The Langevin is combined with the Hodgkin-Huxley system performs accurate interspike interval (ISI) and realizes the accuracy minimal loss (Pu and Thomas, 2020 ). The Berger-Levy theory is introduced to the Hodgkin-Huxley model, demonstrate that the information communication between neurons is related to the presynaptic firing rate and the synchronization (Ghavami et al, 2018 ).…”