On the Role of Subthreshold Dynamics in Neuronal Signaling

The role of subthreshold dynamics in neuronal signaling is examined using periodic pulse train stimulation of the Fitzhugh–Nagumo (FN) model of nerve membrane excitability and results from the squid giant axon as an experimental data base. For a broad range of stimulus conditions the first pulse in a pulse train elicited an action potential, whereas all subsequent pulses elicited subthreshold responses, both in the axon and in the FN model. These results are not well described by the Hodgkin and Huxley 1952 model. Various different patterns of subthreshold responses, including chaotic dynamics, can be observed in both systems—the FN model and the axon—depending upon stimulus conditions. For some conditions action potentials are occasionally interspersed among the subthreshold events with randomly occurring interspike intervals. The randomness is directly attributable to the underlying subthreshold chaos—deterministic chaos—rather than to a stochastic noise source. We conclude that this mechanism may contribute to multimodal interspike interval histogramns which have been observed from individual neurons throughout the nervous system.