Time-interval sequences in bistable systems and the noise-induced transmission of information by sensory neurons

Abstract

We discuss the two time-interval sequences which play a crucial role in studies of escape times in bistable systems driven by periodic functions embedded in noise. We demonstrate that the probability density of escape times for one of the sequences exhibits all the substantive features of experimental interspike interval histograms recorded from real, periodically forced sensory neurons. Our analysis relies on linking this interval sequence to the firing-reset mechanism of real neurons, and illustrates the importance of the noise, without which the substantive features cannot exist, for the transmission of sensory information.