Rate coding

The rate coding model of the neuronal firing communication states that as the intensity of a stimulus raises the frequency or rate of action potentials, or the "spike firing", too rises. Rate coding is at times known as the frequency coding.

This phenomenon was initially shown by ED Adrian and Y Zotterman in the year 1926. In this simple experiment various weights were hung from a muscle. As the weight of the stimulus rises, the number of spikes recorded from sensory nerves innervating the muscle also rises. From these original experiments the Adrian and Zotterman accomplished that the action potentials were unitary events and the frequency of events, are not separate event magnitude, and was the foundation for most of the inter-neuronal communication.