Noise-induced transition and synchronization in paddlefish electroreceptors

The electrosensory system of paddlefish contains thousands of electroreceptors, which are spontaneously active systems producing stochastic biperiodic spike trains, with a wide range of natural frequencies (mean firing rates). There is no morphological or physiological evidence for coupling between electroreceptors: they can be considered as a parallel array of uncoupled stochastic oscillators. Using broadband noise stimulation, we show that noise induces parabolic bursts in single electroreceptors, revealing a new slow time scale. Noise stimulation also leads to synchronization of the burst onsets in different electroreceptors, even though their intraburst tiring rates may differ.