Modeling cancelation of periodic inputs with burst-STDP and feedback

Prediction and cancelation of redundant information is an important feature that many neural systems must display in order to efficiently code external signals. We develop an analytic framework for such cancelation in sensory neurons produced by a cerebellar-like structure in wave-type electric fish. Our biologically plausible mechanism is motivated by experimental evidence of cancelation of periodic input arising from the proximity of conspecifics as well as tail motion. This mechanism involves elements present in a wide range of systems: (1) stimulus-driven feedback to the neurons acting as detectors, (2) a large variety of temporal delays in the pathways transmitting such feedback, responsible for producing frequency channels, and (3) burst-induced long-term plasticity. The bursting arises from back-propagating action potentials. Bursting events drive the input frequency-dependent learning rule, which in turn affects the feedback input and thus the burst rate. We show how the mean firing rate and the rate of production of 2- and 4-spike bursts (the main learning events) can be estimated analytically for a leaky integrate-and-fire model driven by (slow) sinusoidal, back-propagating and feedback inputs as well as rectified filtered noise. The effect of bursts on the average synaptic strength is also derived. Our results shed light on why bursts rather than single spikes can drive learning in such networks “online”, i.e. in the absence of a correlative discharge. Phase locked spiking in frequency specific channels together with a frequency-dependent STDP window size regulate burst probability and duration self-consistently to implement cancelation.