SPIKE PROBABILITIES IN NEURONES: INFLUENCE OF TEMPORAL STRUCTURE IN THE TRAIN OF SYNAPTIC EVENTS

Certain input-output relations were studied by way of intraneuronal recordings in isolated visceral ganglia of Aplysia californica. All cells exhibited a prolonged sequence of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSP's) of a single type and, as a consequence, produced recurrent spikes. EPSP's either (1) occurred 'spontaneously' or (2) were initiated by stimulating a connective with shocks from a stimulator driven by a Geiger counter. The prespike epoch was analyzed and the events that trigger the postsynaptic spike were identified in a probabilistic manner. Experiments in digital-computer-simulated neurons reproduced and extended the results of animal experiments.