[ExI] ANN question

[Adrian Tymes]

Careful with the quoting.  You attributed to you my line, and vice
versa.  I've sorted it out here.

On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 6:46 AM, William Flynn Wallace
<foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 13, 2017 at 6:14 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The data could include how long since the neuron last fired   At any given
>> moment, a neuron is either firing or not, even if a given neuron's recent
>> firing history is critical data that simplified ANNs often ignore.
>
> My understanding is that a neuron is always firing.  It has an idle speed
> and if inhibitory stimuli come in it slows down, and if excitatory it speeds
> up.

At any given instant, a neuron may either be firing or have a time
until next firing - but a firing is a (mostly) discrete event, with
one firing distinct from the next.

If it was not distinct - if it was "always firing" - then there would
be no such thing as "speed" of firing.  Rather than toggle on then off
at various rates, it would simply be always on.