Harmonics and intermodulation in subthreshold FitzHugh-Nagumo neuron

Abstract

Intermodulation and harmonics are important in frequency analysis of nonlinear systems. In neuron research, most investigations are taken in studying synchronization between the external stimuli and the output of neuron, but harmonics and intermodulation are often ignored. In this paper, harmonics and intermodulation of the subthreshold FitzHugh-Nagumo neuron are investigated and their magnitudes are used to predict frequency response of the neuron. Furthermore, through analyzing the magnitudes of harmonics, the intrinsic frequencies of the neuron could be identified.