Characterizing the information transmission of inverse stochastic resonance and noise-induced activity amplification in neuronal systems

Purkinje cells exhibit a reduction of the mean firing rate at intermediate-noise intensities, which is somewhat reminiscent of the response enhancement known as "stochastic resonance" (SR). Although the comparison with the stochastic resonance ends here, the current phenomenon has been given the name "inverse stochastic resonance" (ISR). Recent research has demonstrated that the ISR effect, like its close relative "nonstandard SR" [or, more correctly, noise-induced activity amplification (NIAA)], has been shown to stem from the weak-noise quenching of the initial distribution, in bistable regimes where the metastable state has a larger attraction basin than the global minimum. To understand the underlying mechanism of the ISR and NIAA phenomena, we study the probability distribution function of a one-dimensional system subjected to a bistable potential that has the property of symmetry, i.e., if we change the sign of one of its parameters, we can obtain both phenomena with the same properties in the depth of the wells and the width of their basins of attraction subjected to Gaussian white noise with variable intensity. Previous work has shown that one can theoretically determine the probability distribution function using the convex sum between the behavior at small and high noise intensities. To determine the probability distribution function more precisely, we resort to the "weighted ensemble Brownian dynamics simulation" model, which provides an accurate estimate of the probability distribution function for both low and high noise intensities and, most importantly, for the transition of both behaviors. In this way, on the one hand, we show that both phenomena emerge from a metastable system where, in the case of ISR, the global minimum of the system is in a state of lower activity, while in the case of NIAA, the global minimum is in a state of increased activity, the importance of which does not depend on the width of the basins of attraction. On the other hand, we see that quantifiers such as Fisher information, statistical complexity, and especially Shannon entropy fail to distinguish them, but they show the existence of the mentioned phenomena. Thus, noise management may well be a mechanism by which Purkinje cells find an efficient way to transmit information in the cerebral cortex.