The rate coding model of neuronal firing communication states that as the intensity of a stimulus increases the frequency or rate of action potentials, or "spike firing", increases. Rate coding is sometimes called frequency coding.
This phenomenon was originally shown by ED Adrian and Y Zotterman in 1926. In this simple experiment different weights were hung from a muscle. As the weight of the stimulus increased, the number of spikes recorded from sensory nerves innervating the muscle also increased. From these original experiments Adrian and Zotterman concluded that action potentials were unitary events, and that the frequency of events, and not individual event magnitude, was the basis for most inter-neuronal communication.
Read more about Rate Coding: See Also
Famous quotes containing the word rate:
“You are more than entitled not to know what the word ‘performative’ means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it does not mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)