What is the attribute 'number' in NetStim?

[Feanor]

Hello to all,

I don't understand what the field 'number' in NetStim is. http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/stati ... im#NetStim

Does it refer to the (average) number of events to be generated during the whole period where NetStim is to be active?

Best regards

[ted]

Quickest way to answer the question: build a toy model and run some tests. Your mission, 008, should you choose to accept. P.S.--you may report your conclusions in cleartext.

C

[Feanor]

Very well. Before doing it, I will mention what I have tried doing. A neuron with many excitatory synapses receiving Poisson input trains. The interval for a NetStim, representing the Poisson train is set as the inverse of a rate, and the number of spikes as (rate * stimtime), where stimtime is the time during which there exists stimulation. noise = 1 for the Netstim.

What I have seen happening is than most often the number of events generated by NetStim is less than number = rate*stimtime, and towards the end of the stimulation the stimuli events are less in number and the spike rate of the neuron they stimulate is lowered.

I will do the investigation with the toy model and come back with the results.