A multichannel shot noise approach to describe synaptic
background activity in neurons.
Michelle Rudolph and Alain Destexhe
European Physical Journal B 52: 125-132, 2006.
Abstract
Systems driven by Poisson-distributed quantal inputs can be
described as ``shot noise'' stochastic processes. This formalism
can apply to neurons which receive a large number of
Poisson-distributed synaptic inputs of similar quantal size.
However, the presence of temporal correlations between these inputs
destroys their quantal nature, and such systems can no longer be
described by classical shot noise processes. Here, we show that
explicit expressions for various statistical properties, such as
the amplitude distribution and the power spectral density, can be
deduced and investigated as functions of the correlation between
input channels. The monotonic behavior of these expressions allows
an one-to-one relation between temporal correlations and the
statistics of fluctuations. Multi-channel shot noise processes,
therefore, open a way to deduce correlations in input patterns by
analyzing fluctuations in experimental systems. We discuss
applications such as detecting correlations in networks of neurons
from intracellular recordings of single neurons.
return to
publication list
return to main page