Research On Sensitivity Of Neurons To Input Fluctuations

Sensitivity is one of the most important ways for neurons responding to externalstimuli. Neuronal sensitivity to input is beneficial to obtainment and coding of signal.Acupuncture and electrode stimulus are fluctuating inputs. Research neuronalsensitivity to them is of great significance for understanding their mechanism. Basedon models, this paper explores neuronal sensitivity to input fluctuations.This paper first establishes new neuron models under different stimuli. Based onchoosing mean firing rate as the output of a neuron, this paper investigates theneuronal sensitivity of firing rate. The sensitivity mentioned here is divided into twoclasses: one is the sensitivity of firing rate to input parameters, and the other issensitivity to noises. Based on the established models under different fluctuatinginputs, this paper first researches the sensitivity under current stimulus. It finds thatneurons are sensitive to fluctuating current through the analysis of voltage-time curvesand firing patterns, i.e., the firing rate varies obviously with the variation of current.Next adding noise to fluctuating current, it gets the two or three dimensional diagramof current-noise-firing rate and proves that noises influence neuronal sensitivity.According to Faraday’s law, it finds that electromagnetic field (EMF) acts asinduction electric field (IEF) in neurons. Through analysing the effects of differentIEF on discharge activity and comparing the voltage-time curves and two or threedimensional diagram of firing rate to electric field parameters, this paper finds thatneurons are sensitive to IEF and obtains the influences of noises on sensitivity to IEF.The researches of this paper show that current stimulus and frequency/amplitudeof the IEF, as well as the intensity of noises, all have significant influences on thesensitivity of neuronal firing rate. These results prove that EMF could change thedischarge activity of neurons, which provide theoretic idea for mental disorders’exploration and treatment by EMF.