Abstract
The probability of the joint occurrence of two statistically independent events is the product of the probabilities of the individual events. This fact is used to show that a neuron which detects coincident arrivals of spikes from two input neurons can function as a multiplier, i.e. its average output spike frequency is proportional to the product of the average input spike frequencies. The theoretical analysis is checked in two ways: (a) Computer simulations confirm the derived expressions for the output frequency and show that increasing the jitter in the input spike trains improves the operation of the multiplier by making the output spike train more regular (b) Experimentally recorded spike trains are used to demonstrate that the type and amount of jitter present in real spike trains is adequate for satisfactory operation of the proposed scheme for multiplication. The operating characteristics of the proposed multiplier make it an attractive candidate for the multiplicative mechanism that is involved in the optomotor response of insects.
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Srinivasan, M.V., Bernard, G.D. A proposed mechanism for multiplication of neural signals. Biol. Cybernetics 21, 227–236 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344168
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344168