Abstract
We derive a mathematical theory to explain the subthreshold resonance response of a neuron to synaptic input. The theory shows how a neuron combines information from its intrinsic resonant properties with those of the synapse to determine the neuron's generalized resonance response. Our results show that the maximal response of a postsynaptic neuron can lie between the preferred intrinsic frequency of the neuron and the synaptic resonance frequency. We compare our theoretical results to parallel findings on experiments of the crab pyloric central pattern generator.