Synchronous spike propagation in Izhikevich neuron system with spike-timing dependent plasticity

Recently spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) was discovered in the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus and modeled as STDP rules. On the other hand, Izhikevich neuron model was proposed to be able to reproduce the firing patterns observed experimentally. In this paper, it is found that the STDP process like a stochastic resonance phenomenon arises in Izhikevich neuron system which has some typical firing patterns such as regular spiking (RS), intrinsically bursting (IB) and chattering (CH). Under the optimum noise intensity, synaptic weights are potentiated according to each firing pattern of RS, IB and CH and signals can be propagated stably in this system. It is concluded that STDP with the noise can enhance the synchronous spike propagation.