Figure 1.

The action potential pattern produced by a nonadapting neuron that detects the feature D in the sequence is shown in trace A. In trace B, the action potential pattern produced by an adapting neuron which recognizes the initiation of a sequence of Ds is shown. Trace C is a representation of trace B in terms of the decay of an instantaneous firing rate. Trace D shows the timing of action potentials conveying information about the elapsed time since the Ds began, by means of phase encoding with respect to an underlying uniform rhythm (trace E).