Direct connections assist neurons to detect correlation in small amplitude noises

Abstract

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We address a question on the effect of common stochastic inputson the correlation of the spike trains of two neurons when they arecoupled through direct connections. We show that the change in thecorrelation of small amplitude stochastic inputs can be better detectedwhen the neurons are connected by direct excitatory couplings.Depending on whether intrinsic firing rate of the neurons is identical orslightly different, symmetric or asymmetric connections can increasethe sensitivity of the system to the input correlation by changing themean slope of the correlation transfer function over a given range ofinput correlation. In either case, there is also an optimum value forsynaptic strength which maximizes the sensitivity of the system to thechanges in input correlation.

Keywords

• Correlation
• synchrony
• correlation transfer
• coupled neurons
• inhomogeneity