Figure 11.

Expected signal deviations causing a spike. a, The expected size of the excursion in the generator potential generating a spike is shown (in units of SD) as a function of both the threshold of the neuron and the kurtosis of the generator potential. For the mean values of the threshold and kurtosis the value is ∼2 SDs. b, Histogram of the expected deviation in our population of cells obtained by using the relationship in a while plugging in the estimated values of the threshold and kurtosis for each case. The distribution is centered near 2 SDs. Thus, despite thresholds being at 1 SD, on average the size of the generator potential excursion producing a spike is ∼2 SDs.