Oscillations, noise and extended negative correlations in electroreceptors

摘要

We demonstrate the existence of two types of oscillators embedded in the electroreceptor system of paddlefish. The first type of oscillator is represented by the collective activity of hundreds of epithelial cells. It produces stochastic oscillations with a well-expressed peak in the power spectrum at approx. 25 Hz. The second oscillator resides in the afferent terminals and is driven by the first, epithelial oscillations. We show that the existence of the epithelial oscillation leads to two main effects. On the one hand, it busts variability of afferent firing, expressed as an increase of the coefficient of variation of interspike intervals. On the other hand, however, the epithelial oscillations involve additional degree of ordering expressed in the extended negative correlations between sequential interspike intervals. We discuss implications of extended negative correlations on the performance of electroreceptors.