On the interspike-intervals of periodically-driven integrate-and-fire models

Abstract: We analyze properties of the firing map, which iterations give information about consecutive spikes, for periodically driven linear integrate-and-fire models. By considering locally integrable (thus in general not continuous) input functions, we generalize some results of other authors. In particular we prove theorems concerning continuous dependence of the firing map on the input in suitable function spaces. Using mathematical study of the displacement sequence of an orientation preserving circle homeomorphism, we provide also a complete description of the regularity properties of the sequence of interspike-intervals and behaviour of the interspike-interval distribution. Our results allow to explain some facts concerning this distribution observed numerically by other authors. These theoretical findings are illustrated by carefully chosen computational examples.