The paper describes a VLSI viable integrate-and-fire neuron model with an easily controllable firing threshold that can be used to induce synchronization processes. The circuits are intended to exploit both rate and spike time coding schemes, taking advantage of these synchronization processes to accelerate processing tasks. In this way the temporal domain can be exploited in neural computation architectures. A simple neural structure is also discussed, providing simulation results to illustrate how these time coded signals can be combined to perform a simple processing task such as coherent input detection.