  We analyze the phenomenon of anticipating synchronization of two excitable
systems with unidirectional delayed coupling which are subject to the same
external forcing. We demonstrate for different paradigms of excitable system
that, due to the coupling, the excitability threshold for the slave system is
always lower than that for the master. As a consequence the two systems respond
to a common external forcing with different response times. This allows to
explain in a simple way the mechanism behind the phenomenon of anticipating
synchronization.
