Enhancing the resolution of a sensor via negative correlation: a biologically inspired approach

We demonstrate that a neuronal system, underpinned by "fire-then-reset" dynamics, can display an enhanced resolution R~T(ob)(-1) where T(ob) is the observation time of the measurement; this occurs when the interspike intervals are negatively correlated and T(ob)<Δ/ε, where ε is a parameter characterizing the level of correlation between interspike intervals and Δ is the average interspike interval. We also show that by introducing negative correlations into the time domain response of a nonlinear dynamical sensor it is possible to replicate this enhanced scaling of the resolution. Thus, we demonstrate the potential for designing a novel class of biomimetic sensors that afford improved signal resolution by functionally utilizing negative correlations.