The term synfire chain was first used by Moshe Abeles in 1982,[1] to account for the appearance of synchronous firing sequences with long inter-spike delays, which resisted explanation in terms of the known properties of cortical physiology.
He called this structure a “complete transmission line”.
A fairly similar idea in which synchronized reverberations among neuronal populations transfer information was suggested by Hebb in 1949.
[3] Activity along a synfire chain propagates in a synchronous or an asynchronous mode.
In the asynchronous mode, an elevated firing rate in one pool will accumulate, and increase the firing rate in the next layer.