Abstract：Neural firing is basic and crucial to information processing and cognition in nervous systems, and there have been many complex firing patterns observed in neural experiments and numerical simulations. Since 1980’s, a number of advances in the field of nonlinear science have provided some necessary theoretical concepts and powerful tools for deeper understanding of neural firing patterns. The concepts of nonlinear dynamics, such as chaos, bifurcation, synchronization and stochastic resonance, were successfully employed to investigate the complex firing patterns and their generation mechanisms. Based on these advances, a combination of neuroscience and nonlinear science was developed rapidly in the last two decades, and its new results have been earned in recognition of the basic dynamics of neural firing.