A theoretical study of neural adaptation and transient responses due to inhibitory feedback

Abstract

Adaptation of repetitively firing sensory neurons and nerve models is correlated with specific inhibitory feedback phenomena—an electrogenic sodium pump, and post synaptic self inhibition. The quality of the adaptive responses depends on the excitation properties of the neuron in the interspike interval, or the description of these properties by the underlying impulse encoder model. THis model dependence is demonstrated by comparisons of the behavior of two classes of models; the “leaky integrator models” which assume a passive neural membrane, and the “variable-γ models”, for which the neural state of excitation varies according to first order differential equations. The complexity inherent in the variable-γ models is effectively boiled down to mathematically simple relationships which are derived from studies of the neural- and model frequency responses to small amplitude sinusoidal stimuli. It is argued, and supported with examples, that these relationships hold for impulse frequency transients resulting from more general stimulus conditions. Expressions are then derived which permit feedback parameters to be determined from impulse frequency data. In this connection, recent studies of neural dynamics are brought to bear to resolve ambiguities in data interpretation.