Stochastic resonance in the LIF models with input or threshold noise

First-passage times in integrate-and-fire neurons with stochastic thresholds

We consider a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron with deterministic subthreshold dynamics and a firing threshold that evolves as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The formulation of this minimal model is motivated by the experimentally observed widespread variation of neural firing thresholds. We show numerically that the mean first-passage time can depend nonmonotonically on the noise amplitude. For sufficiently large values of the correlation time of the stochastic threshold the mean first-passage time is maximal for nonvanishing noise. We provide an explanation for this effect by analytically transforming the original model into a first-passage-time problem for Brownian motion. This transformation also allows for a perturbative calculation of the first-passage-time histograms. In turn this provides quantitative insights into the mechanisms that lead to the nonmonotonic behavior of the mean first-passage time. The perturbation expansion is in excellent agreement with direct numerical simulations. The approach developed here can be applied to any deterministic subthreshold dynamics and any Gauss-Markov processes for the firing threshold. This opens up the possibility to incorporate biophysically detailed components into the subthreshold dynamics, rendering our approach a powerful framework that sits between traditional integrate-and-fire models and complex mechanistic descriptions of neural dynamics.

Stochastic resonance crossovers in complex networks

Here we numerically study the emergence of stochastic resonance as a mild phenomenon and how this transforms into an amazing enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio at several levels of a disturbing ambient noise. The setting is a cooperative, interacting complex system modelled as an Ising-Hopfield network in which the intensity of mutual interactions or “synapses” varies with time in such a way that it accounts for, e.g., a kind of fatigue reported to occur in the cortex. This induces nonequilibrium phase transitions whose rising comes associated to various mechanisms producing two types of resonance. The model thus clarifies the details of the signal transmission and the causes of correlation among noise and signal. We also describe short-time persistent memory states, and conclude on the limited relevance of the network wiring topology. Our results, in qualitative agreement with the observation of excellent transmission of weak signals in the brain when competing with both intrinsic and external noise, are expected to be of wide validity and may have technological application. We also present here a first contact between the model behavior and psychotechnical data.

Excitation of coherent oscillations in a noisy medium

We numerically study the influence of neuronal threshold modulation on the properties of cortical traveling waves. For that reason we simplify a Wilson-Cowan-type integrodifferential equation model of propagating neocortical activity to a spatially discrete version. Further we introduce a noisy threshold. Depending on the noise level we find different states of the network activity, ranging from asynchronous oscillations, traveling waves, to synchronous oscillations. Finally, we induce the transition between these different states by an external modulation.