dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaSynchronisation, binding and the role of correlated firing in fast information transmission
| Authors | Simon R. Schultz, Huw D. R. Golledge, Stefano Panzeri |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0006081 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0006081 |
Abstract
Does synchronization between action potentials from different neurons in the visual system play a substantial role in solving the binding problem? The binding problem can be studied quantitatively in the broader framework of the information contained in neural spike trains about some external correlate, which in this case is object configurations in the visual field. We approach this problem by using a mathematical formalism that quantifies the impact of correlated firing in short time scales. Using a power series expansion, the mutual information an ensemble of neurons conveys about external stimuli is broken down into firing rate and correlation components. This leads to a new quantification procedure directly applicable to simultaneous multiple neuron recordings. It theoretically constrains the neural code, showing that correlations contribute less significantly than firing rates to rapid information processing. By using this approach to study the limits upon the amount of information that an ideal observer is able to extract from a synchrony code, it may be possible to determine whether the available amount of information is sufficient to support computational processes such as feature binding.
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"abstract": "Does synchronization between action potentials from different neurons in the\nvisual system play a substantial role in solving the binding problem? The\nbinding problem can be studied quantitatively in the broader framework of the\ninformation contained in neural spike trains about some external correlate,\nwhich in this case is object configurations in the visual field. We approach\nthis problem by using a mathematical formalism that quantifies the impact of\ncorrelated firing in short time scales. Using a power series expansion, the\nmutual information an ensemble of neurons conveys about external stimuli is\nbroken down into firing rate and correlation components. This leads to a new\nquantification procedure directly applicable to simultaneous multiple neuron\nrecordings. It theoretically constrains the neural code, showing that\ncorrelations contribute less significantly than firing rates to rapid\ninformation processing. By using this approach to study the limits upon the\namount of information that an ideal observer is able to extract from a\nsynchrony code, it may be possible to determine whether the available amount of\ninformation is sufficient to support computational processes such as feature\nbinding.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0006081",
"authors": [
"Simon R. Schultz",
"Huw D. R. Golledge",
"Stefano Panzeri"
],
"categories": [
"physics.bio-ph",
"q-bio.NC"
],
"title": "Synchronisation, binding and the role of correlated firing in fast information transmission",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0006081"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
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