Synergy from Silence in a Combinatorial Neural Code

Biology – Quantitative Biology – Neurons and Cognition

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

9 pages, 6 figures

Scientific paper

The manner in which groups of neurons represent events in the external world is fundamental to neuroscience. Here, we analyze the population code of the retina during naturalistic stimulation and show that the information conveyed by specific multi-neuronal firing patterns can be very different from the sum of the pattern's parts. Synchronous spikes convey more information than either of the participating cells, but almost always less than their sum, making them redundant coding symbols. Surprisingly, patterns of spiking and silence are mostly synergistic - carrying information that is accessible only by observing the whole pattern of activity, rather than its components, and signifying unique features in the stimulus. These results demonstrate that the retina uses a combinatorial code and that the brain can benefit significantly from recognizing multi-neuronal firing patterns.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Synergy from Silence in a Combinatorial Neural Code does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Synergy from Silence in a Combinatorial Neural Code, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Synergy from Silence in a Combinatorial Neural Code will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-480714

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.