Coherent response of the Hodgkin-Huxley neuron in the high-input regime

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Hodgkin-Huxley neurons respond coherently to high levels of uncorrelated stochastic synaptic inputs, revealing two distinct noise-induced resonance phenomena that influence spike timing.

Contribution

It identifies and characterizes two different coherence resonances in Hodgkin-Huxley neurons under high-input stochastic conditions, clarifying their underlying mechanisms.

Findings

Coexistence of two coherence resonances at different noise levels.

Low noise resonance linked to subthreshold oscillations.

Intermediate noise resonance related to spike train regularization.

Abstract

We analyze the response of the Hodgkin-Huxley neuron to a large number of uncorrelated stochastic inhibitory and excitatory post-synaptic spike trains. In order to clarify the various mechanisms responsible for noise-induced spike triggering we examine the model in its silent regime. We report the coexistence of two distinct coherence resonances: the first one at low noise is due to the stimulation of "correlated" subthreshold oscillations; the second one at intermediate noise variances is instead related to the regularization of the emitted spike trains.