Burst Stimulation

The brain is a complex adaptive system, processing information from the internal and external environment. Information is transmitted within the nervous system in at least 2 separate firing patterns, tonic and burst firing. Burst firing consists of closely spaced spikes at high frequency (eg 500 Hz) followed by quiescent periods. It has been proposed that burst firing is a signal detector, a kind of wake up call, telling the brain new information has arrived, whereas tonic firing is a feature detector, it transmits the content of the new information. Thus burst can be seen as a start and stop signal at the beginning and end of quanta of information, which are transmitted in tonic mode. But burst firing also functions as a multiplexor, permitting selective routing of information via specific pathways.