Chaotic neuron clock

Abstract

A simple threshold model of neuron firing (with the neuron membrane electrochemical potential governed by the chaotic Rossler attractor) has been analyzed by mapping the generated irregular spiking time-series into telegraph signals. In this model the fundamental frequency of the chaotic Rossler attractor provides (with a period doubling) the strong periodic component of the generated irregular signal. The exponentially decaying broad-band part of the spectrum of the Rossler attractor has been transformed by the threshold firing mechanism into a scaling tale. These results are compared with irregular spiking time-series obtained in vitro from a spontaneous activity of hippocampal (CA3) singular neurons (rat's brain slice culture). The comparison shows good agreement between the model and experimentally obtained spectra