Pulse-number distributions (PND) were recorded from primary afferent fibers in the auditory nerve of the cat, using standard microelectrode techniques. Pure-tone and broadband-noise stimuli were used. The number of neural spikes (pulses) n was measured in a set of contiguous intervals, each of duration T seconds. The quantity n varies from one interval to another. These data were then used to determine the PND, which is the probability p(n, T) of occurrence of n spikes in the time T, versus the number n. The estimated mean and variance of p(n, T) were obtained; these quantities are generally slowly increasing functions of the stimulus intensity I. For many units, the mean-to-variance ratio (MVR) is broadly peaked, reaching a maximum value of about 2 at stimulus levels in the vicinity of 10–20 dB re frequency-tuning-curve threshold. The MVR will be compared with the synchronization index as a measure of phase locking for units of various characteristic frequencies. [Work supported by NIH Grant 5 R01 NS 03654.]
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Teich et al. (1982) studied this question.