Stochastic resonance of ensemble neurons for transient spike trains: Wavelet analysis

By using the wavelet transformation (WT), I have analyzed the response of an ensemble of N (=1, 10, 100, and 500) Hodgkin-Huxley neurons to transient M-pulse spike trains (M=1 to 3) with independent Gaussian noises. The cross correlation between the input and output signals is expressed in terms of the WT expansion coefficients. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is evaluated by using the denoising method within the WT, by which the noise contribution is extracted from the output signals. Although the response of a single (N=1) neuron to subthreshold transient signals with noises is quite unreliable, the transmission fidelity assessed by the cross correlation and SNR is shown to be much improved by increasing the value of N: a population of neurons plays an indispensable role in the stochastic resonance (SR) for transient spike inputs. It is also shown that in a large-scale ensemble, the transmission fidelity for suprathreshold transient spikes is not significantly degraded by a weak noise which is responsible to SR for subthreshold inputs.