Single neuron's activity: on certain problems of modeling and interpretation.

With reference to the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for single neuron activity, computational results and theoretical arguments are provided to discuss the accuracy and the appropriateness of analytical approximations to first-passage-time densities and its moments. A gamma approximation is initially discussed, use of which is successively made to construct a probability density of a new form that appears to be particularly suitable to approximate the as yet unknown firing probability density function.