Spikes, Phases, Noise: How to Describe Them Mathematically? We Learn a Few Tricks and Some Important Concepts

Abstract

In this chapter we present the ingredients that we will need to formulate our model on pulse-coupled neural networks. There are two ways of reading this chapter. The speedy reader will read Sect. 4.1 that shows how to mathematically describe spikes (or short pulses). Section 4.4 deals with a simple model of how the conversion of axonal spikes into dendritic currents at a synapse can be modeled. Finally, we will need the fundamental concept of phase that will be presented in Sects. 4.9.1 and 4.9.2. Combined with a knowledge of Chaps. 3 and 3 the reader will then easily understand the lighthouse model of Chap. 5 and its extensions. Later he or she may like to return to read the other sections of Chap. 4.