A new analysis of neuronal interspike intervals based on inequality tests.

Abstract

In an attempt to define patterns in the output of a neuron in the central nervous system, an inequality test for differences in the width of adjacent pairs of interspike intervals was performed using a digital computer. The results of the tests, whether the first interval was longer (+), shorter (-), or the same duration (0) as the second, were arranged into a conditional probability matrix which showed the sequential relationships between three adjacent intervals. The probabilities can be denned as the transition probabilities for an output of a neuron going from one state to another. Significant diagram patterns emerged.