Neural mechanisms to improve timing

We use probabilistic techniques to study neural systems which improve the timing accuracy of action potential 'ring. A striking example of such accuracy was discovered in the columnar region of the VNLL by Covey and Casseday (J. Neurosci. 11 (1991) 3456). In response to sound stimulation, these VNLL cells 're an action potential whose latency under repeated trials has a standard deviation of approximately 100 s. This is remarkable because the typical standard deviation in the auditory nerve is 1 ms. In simple systems, we show how the improvement in timing depends on the number of incoming 'bers and the number of hits required in a small time window. c © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.