A Quantitative Approach to Habituation and to Evaluation of the Effects of Noisy Neural Pathways in a Crayfish System

Abstract

The walk response to photostimulation of the crayfish caudal photoreceptor system is analyzed in terms of statistical dependence between input and output utilizing information theory. The analysis provides an identification of habituation and dishabituation in this system. Further, one of the dishabituatory responses can itself be seen to habituate and dishabituate. A quantitative measure of the statistical dependence of walk response on light stimulus intensity is found and compared with similar calculations presented previously for the ability of the neural pathways involved in this system to transmit information. It is shown that dispersion of interpulse intervals during axonal and synaptic transmission does not significantly limit the dependence of the behavioral walk response on the intensity of light stimulation.