A minimal model for decoding of time-limited Ca2+ oscillations.

Calcium oscillations regulate several cellular processes by activating particular proteins. Most theoretical studies focused on the idealized situation of infinitely long oscillations. Here we analyze information transfer by time-limited calcium spike trains. We show that proteins can be selectively activated in a resonance-like manner by time-limited spike trains of different frequencies, while infinitely long oscillations do not show this resonance phenomenon. We found that proteins are activated more specifically by shorter oscillatory signals with narrower spikes.