Modeling neural activity with cumulative damage distributions

• Published in: Biological cybernetics 2015-10, Vol.109 (4-5), p.421-433
• Main Authors: Leiva, Víctor, Tejo, Mauricio, Guiraud, Pierre, Schmachtenberg, Oliver, Orio, Patricio, Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action Potentials - physiology; Animals; Bioinformatics; Biological; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Birnbaum-Saunders and inverse Gaussian distributions; Complex Systems; Computer Appl. in Life Sciences; Computer Simulation; Cumulative damage; Cybernetics; Female; Humans; Integrate-and-fire model; Inter-spike intervals; Inverse; Male; Mathematical models; Maximum likelihood method; Model selection and goodness of fit; Models, Neurological; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Normal Distribution; Original Paper; Probabilistic methods; Probability theory
• ISSN: 0340-1200; 1432-0770; 1432-0770
• DOI: 10.1007/s00422-015-0651-9

Neurons transmit information as action potentials or spikes. Due to the inherent randomness of the inter-spike intervals (ISIs), probabilistic models are often used for their description. Cumulative damage (CD) distributions are a family of probabilistic models that has been widely considered for describing time-related cumulative processes. This family allows us to consider certain deterministic principles for modeling ISIs from a probabilistic viewpoint and to link its parameters to values with biological interpretation. The CD family includes the Birnbaum–Saunders and inverse Gaussian distributions, which possess distinctive properties and theoretical arguments useful for ISI description. We expand the use of CD distributions to the modeling of neural spiking behavior, mainly by testing the suitability of the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution, which has not been studied in the setting of neural activity. We validate this expansion with original experimental and simulated electrophysiological data.