c ○ 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The Netherlands. Decoding Input Signals in Time Domain—A Model Approach

Abstract. From an observation of efferent interspike intervals of a neuron, we consider how to decode the input temporal information. It is found that the integrate-and-fire model is blind in the temporal domain due to the fact that its efferent firing rate is independent of the input temporal frequency. The conclusion is then confirmed for the integrate-and-fire model with correlated inputs, with reversal potentials, with a nonlinear leakage and with a subthreshold oscillation. For the Hodgkin-Huxley model, however, in terms of efferent firing rates alone, it is possible to read out the input temporal information. Keywords: the integrate-and-fire model, decoding, the Hodgkin-Huxley model, input frequency, tuning curve