Die Informationskapazität einzelner Nervenzellen für die Signalübermittlung im Zentralnervensystem

Summary

• 1. Information received by the sense organs is transmitted into the central nervous system by means of different discharge patterns of the neurons in the afferent pathways. As demonstrated in a previous paper these discharge patterns show in the visual system a remarkable random fluctuation in response to peripheral stimuli of constant characteristic.

• 2. The information capacity of a single nerve cell in an afferent sensory pathway is assumed to be

  $$I = \frac{1}{{t_i }}ld(t_i \cdot F_{max} ) bit \cdot sec^{ - 1} .$$

  t _i is the “summation interval” determined by the time constant of the central integrating process (15–80 msec), F _max is the maximal impulse rate (per sec) of a given nerve cell within the interval t _i .

• 3. The consequences of this equation are discussed and a three dimensional graphical representation of the equation is given. It is believed that F _max and t _i are different in different populations of neurons.

• 4. t _i probably depends upon chemical processes in the CNS related to the synaptic transmission. A change of t _i results in a change of the amount of information which can be transmitted by a nerve cell without changing the maximal impulse rate of the nerve cell.