Optimal control of neuronal activity

We investigate the optimal control of neuronal spiking activity for neurons receiving a class of random synaptic inputs, characterized by a positive parameter alpha. Optimal control signals and optimal variances are found exactly for the diffusion process approximating an integrate and fire model. When synaptic inputs are "sub-Poisson" (alpha<0.5), we find that the optimal synaptic input is a delta function (corresponding to bang-bang control) and the optimal signal is not unique. Poisson synaptic input is the critical case: The control signal is unique, but the control signal is still a delta function. For "supra-Poisson" (alpha>0.5) inputs, the optimal control is smooth and unique. The optimal variance obtained in the current paper sets the lowest possible bound in controlling the stochasticity of neuronal activity. We also discuss how to implement the optimal control signal for certain model neurons.