Filtered interspike interval encoding by class II neurons

Dynamics of class II neurons, firing frequencies of which are strongly regulated by the inherent neuronal property, have been extensively studied since the formulation of the Hodgkin-Huxley model in 1952. However, how class II neurons process stimulus information and what kind of external information and internal structure firing patterns of neurons represent are vaguely understood in contrast to firing rate coding by class I neurons. Here we show that the FitzHugh-Nagumo class II neuron simultaneously filters inputs based on the input frequency and represent the signal strength by interspike intervals. In this sense, the class II neuron works as an AM processor that passes the information on the carrier and on the temporal waveform of signals.