Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

New Methods to Study Gustatory Coding
Published on: June 29, 2017
Information processing in noisy burster models of sensory neurons
Steffen Liepelt1, Jan A Freund, Lutz Schimansky-Geier
1Institute of Physics, Humboldt-University Berlin, Newtonstr. 15, D-12489 Berlin, Germany. liepelt@mpikg-golm.mpg.de
Abstract:
Processing of external stimuli by sensory neurons often involves bursting, when epochs of fast firing alternate with intervals of quiescence. In particular, sensory neurons of electroreceptors in paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) undergo bursting when stimulated externally with broad-band noise, but otherwise fire spontaneously in a quasiperiodic tonic manner. We use a simple phenomenological model for noise-induced bursting to quantify analytically, by means of the Kullback entropy and Fisher information, the gain in information transfer and electroreceptor sensitivity for external noisy stimuli. A good agreement between theoretical predictions, numerical simulations and experimental data is shown.
Related Concept Videos
Hearing
The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.
Neural Circuits
Neuronal pools are collections of nerve cells with similar functions and interact through chemical and electrical signals. These pools include both interneurons (the central neural circuit nodes that...
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Parallel Processing

