A network of interneurons couplet by electrical synapses behaves as a coincidence detector

Recent experiments show that inhibitory interneurons are coupled by electrical synapses. In this paper the information transmission properties of a network of three interneurons, coupled by electrical synapses alone, are studied by means of numerical simulations. It is shown that the network is capable to transfer the information contained in its presynapstic inputs when they are near synchronous: i.e. the network behaves as a coincidence detector. Thus, it is hypothesized that this property hold in general for networks of larger size. Lastly it is shown that these findings agree with recent experimental data.