Synaptic channel model including effects of spike width variation

Abstract

An accurate model for neuro-spike communication is important in understanding the fundamentals of molecular communication. However, none of the existing models in the literature studied variations in the shape of action potentials during Axonal propagation, one of the steps during neuro-spike communication. These variations affect the amount of information communicated through a neuron. Hence, analyzing effects of these variations in the release of neurotransmitter, the carrier of information in neuro-spike communication, is imperative in deriving a realistic model for neuro-spike communication. In this work, we improve the existing channel models for synaptic communication to cover the effect of changes in the width of action potential on hippocampal pyramidal neurons based on the experimental data reported in the literature. The receiver neuron is assumed to detect spikes based on Neyman-Pearson method. We derive the structure of this detector for the proposed channel model. Numerical results depict that an increase in the spike width decreases the error probability.