Bistability and resonance in the periodically stimulated Hodgkin-Huxley model with noise

We describe general characteristics of the Hodgkin-Huxley neuron's response to a periodic train of short current pulses with Gaussian noise. The deterministic neuron is bistable for antiresonant frequencies. When the stimuli arrive at the resonant frequency the firing rate is a continuous function of the current amplitude I-0 and scales as (I-0-I-th)(1/2), characteristic of a saddle-node bifurcation at the threshold I-th. Intervals of continuous irregular response alternate with integer mode-locked regions with bistable excitation edge. There is an even-all multimodal transition between the 2:1 and 3:1 states in the vicinity of the main resonance, which is analogous to the odd-all transition discovered earlier in the high-frequency regime. For I-0