ENHANCEMENT OF INTRINSIC SPIKING COHERENCE BY EXTERNAL NON-GAUSSIAN NOISE IN A STOCHASTIC HODGKIN-HUXLEY NEURON

In this paper, we study the effect of external non-Gaussian noise on the temporal coherence of the intrinsic spiking induced by the channel noise in a stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley neuron. It is found that, for a sufficiently large membrane patch, the intrinsic spiking coherence can be enhanced by the proper values of non-Gaussian noise's strength, correlation time, or deviation from Gaussian distribution. And that the intrinsic spiking can exhibit coherence resonance when the noise's strength is optimal. This implies that the channel noise-induced intrinsic spiking may become more or the most ordered in time with the assistance of the external non-Gaussian noise. These results show that the external non-Gaussian noise can play a constructive role for improving the time precision of information processing in stochastic neurons.