  Realizations of low firing rates in neural networks usually require globally
balanced distributions among excitatory and inhibitory links, while feasibility
of temporal coding is limited by neuronal millisecond precision. We show that
cooperation, governing global network features, emerges through nodal
properties, as opposed to link distributions. Using in vitro and in vivo
experiments we demonstrate microsecond precision of neuronal response timings
under low stimulation frequencies, whereas moderate frequencies result in a
chaotic neuronal phase characterized by degraded precision. Above a critical
stimulation frequency, which varies among neurons, response failures were found
to emerge stochastically such that the neuron functions as a low pass filter,
saturating the average inter-spike-interval. This intrinsic neuronal response
impedance mechanism leads to cooperation on a network level, such that firing
rates are suppressed towards the lowest neuronal critical frequency
simultaneously with neuronal microsecond precision. Our findings open up
opportunities of controlling global features of network dynamics through few
nodes with extreme properties.
