A possible source of nerve signal distortion arising in pulse rate encoding of signals

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Biological receptors, some central neurons and some neurone models translate signals into a pulse-rate form. In a single-fibered system, the translation results in some signal loss. This paper is a theoretical examination of the effects on the signal of translation of that signal into a pulse-rate form with reference to a multichannel system. It is shown that even in a multichannel system, considerable signal distortion could result from the process of pulse-rate translation of a dynamic signal. The special case of the translation of sinusoidal wave forms is considered in some detail and it is shown that both signal phase, amplitude ratio and wave form are affected by the original signal amplitude, frequency and background tonic level in a predictable manner. It is shown that the magnitude of the signal-distorting effects in a system composed of multiple asynchronous pulse-rate channels depends primarily on the pulse rate in the individual channels, rather than on the sum of the pulse rates on all of the channels. Within the physiological range of signal and pulse-rate characteristics, both signal delays of as much as 100 msec and complete failure of signal transmission are possible consequences of one pulse-rate translation. Wherever the nervous system employs a pulse-rate representation of signal intensity, the translation from a continuous process to the pulse-rate form of signal should be recognized as a possible source of major signal modification.