<p>Noise will ensure that there will not be perfect symmetry and therefore that one has an advantage to fire first.  Whichever one fires first will inhibit the other and ensure that the first one to fire will stay on for however long the dynamics of the pattern generator allow.  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-30T21:13:18.223Z
I had a feeling that that's the case. So randomly (e.g. Gaussian) distributed noise is the sole or main deciding factor here?
visual-kinetic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-02T01:55:55.550Z
noise comes in so many forms.  you can have noise in the synapses, you can have noise in somatic conductances, the cells can be different sizes, the cells can have different time constants, etc.
honi
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-03T11:15:32.717Z
I down-voted this answer.  Noise does inject assymetry into the system.  However,  a much stronger, system-regulated mechanism of assymetey is connection strength.  This can come in the form of 1) number of interconnections, 2) regulation  of the amount of neurotransmitter released 3) autoregulation of a specific cell 4) regulation of neurotransmitter receptor density 5) other connections or astrocytes or even local environment regulating the excitability of individual cells.
Keegan Keplinger
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-03T13:09:23.370Z
as i described in my explanatory note just above your comment.
honi
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-04T03:30:30.387Z
I would call it signal, not noise.  But I think you could anyway improve your answer a lot...
Keegan Keplinger
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-30T20:01:00.390Z
2013-04-30T20:01:00.390Z
honi
<p>Consider two neurons, A and B, which reciprocally inhibit each other. If both of the neurons receive input at the same time, it seems to me that no oscillation will occur between the two. Such would occur only if one of the two is initially "favored" over the other. So what I'm wondering is, how does that happen? Is it essentially random?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-30T23:07:20.380Z
Honi's got most of it, but it also involves refractory periods and post-inhibitory characteristics of the membrane ("rebound").
Chuck Sherrington
<neuroscience><theoretical-neuroscience>
In a central pattern generator based on reciprocal inhibition, how does one "side" get picked over the other to start out?
visual-kinetic
# In a central pattern generator based on reciprocal inhibition, how does one "side" get picked over the other to start out?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-04-30)

Consider two neurons, A and B, which reciprocally inhibit each other. If both of the neurons receive input at the same time, it seems to me that no oscillation will occur between the two. Such would occur only if one of the two is initially "favored" over the other. So what I'm wondering is, how does that happen? Is it essentially random?

**Tags:** neuroscience, theoretical-neuroscience

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Honi's got most of it, but it also involves refractory periods and post-inhibitory characteristics of the membrane ("rebound").  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-04-30. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Noise will ensure that there will not be perfect symmetry and therefore that one has an advantage to fire first. Whichever one fires first will inhibit the other and ensure that the first one to fire will stay on for however long the dynamics of the pattern generator allow.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I had a feeling that that's the case. So randomly (e.g. Gaussian) distributed noise is the sole or main deciding factor here?  
> **username_2**: noise comes in so many forms.  you can have noise in the synapses, you can have noise in somatic conductances, the cells can be different sizes, the cells can have different time constants, etc.  
> **username_3**: I down-voted this answer.  Noise does inject assymetry into the system.  However,  a much stronger, system-regulated mechanism of assymetey is connection strength.  This can come in the form of 1) number of interconnections, 2) regulation  of the amount of neurotransmitter released 3) autoregulation of a specific cell 4) regulation of neurotransmitter receptor density 5) other connections or astrocytes or even local environment regulating the excitability of individual cells.  
> **username_2**: as i described in my explanatory note just above your comment.  
> **username_3**: I would call it signal, not noise.  But I think you could anyway improve your answer a lot...  

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