Poisson-Like Spiking in Circuits with Probabilistic Synapses

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003522
• Publication Date: 2014-07-17T18:42:20Z
• Authors: Rubén Moreno-Bote
• Keywords: Fano factor

Neuronal activity in cortex is variable both spontaneously and during stimulation, it has the remarkable property that Poisson-like over broad ranges of firing rates covering from virtually zero to hundreds spikes per second. The mechanisms underlying cortical-like spiking variability such a continuum are currently unknown. We show neuronal networks endowed with probabilistic synaptic transmission, well-documented source cortex, robustly generate several orders magnitude their rate without fine-tuning network parameters. Other sources variability, as random delays or spike generation jittering, do not lead at high because they cannot be sufficiently amplified by recurrent networks. also synapses predict Fano factor constancy conductances. Our results suggest noise robust sufficient mechanism for type found cortex.