Interaction of neuronal I/O functions with STDP

Spike timing-dependent synaptic plasticity (STDP) develops neural circuits through close interaction with the firing function of single neurons. Here, we investigate the neuronal firing function dependency of STDP about a single-compartment Hodgkin–Huxley (HH) model neuron and a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) model neuron. Computer simulation shows that the development of synaptic strength by synaptic input pairs with constant intervals depends on the firing function of the models. The more organized packet inputs also develop synaptic strength in a firing function-dependent manner, to realize specific information processing. These results suggest that in real biological systems too, STDP with the same time window will develop different neural circuits, depending on the neuronal firing functions. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 38(1): 41–50, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ scj.20234