Response mechanism of heat-sensitive neurons under combined noise stimulation

Abstract

Patients born with congenital analgesia have no ability to sense temperature, who generally have bleak chances of survival. However, the relevant pathological mechanism remains unclear. To explore how the body's heat-sensitive neurons change in response to external stimuli, based on a heat-sensitive neuron model developed from the piezoelectric neural circuit, we designed two different stimuli combined Gaussian white noise to each stimulus, triggering different firing modes (r1, r2, r3). The Hamilton energy corresponding to each emission mode is calculated to identify the contribution of the external stimulus, and further, a correlation function is defined to identify the influence of external stimuli on the firing mode selection of neurons. Simulation results revealed that the neuronal response to the external stimulus that induces the spike discharge is preferentially compared to the external stimulus that induces the r-clonic pattern. The changes in the contour of the periodic attractor confirmed that external stimuli inducing spike-and-wave and r-clonic patterns could be sensitively perceived. For external stimuli, the chaotic emission pattern caused by the Chua circuit stimulus, the contribution of spikes, r-clonic and even periodic stimuli can be detected because the contour of the chaotic attractor also changes greatly. Moreover, the neurons are more sensitive to external stimuli, which can cause a greater release of Hamilton energy and a higher level of regularity in neural activity. This study revealed the potential response mechanism of thermosensitive neurons under combined noise stimulation.