Obtaining the recovery function from the interval histogram and the poststimulus time histogram

Timing patterns from auditory-nerve discharges are known to depend not only on the acoustic stimuli and the encoding process of the peripheral auditory system, but also on the refractory effects due to the recovery process of the neural cells. Thus, to study clues of encoding schemes of the peripheral auditory system, one has to separate refractory effects from the timing patterns. This can be achieved by defining a function, called the recovery function, that describes the refractory effects. The author demonstrates that this recovery function is readily obtainable from two histograms, the interval histogram and the poststimulus time histogram. Once the recovery function is known, refractory effects on the timing patterns can be easily removed