Speaker: Jean-Marc Fellous
University of Arizona

Title: Is it time for spikes? Precision and reliability of the neural code

Abstract: When a neuron in vitro is injected with frozen noise, the timing of the spikes is highly precise from trial to trial. I will present evidence that the same repeated stimulus can in fact produce more than one reliable temporal pattern of spikes. A method is introduced to find these patterns in raw multi-trial data. Using this method, multiple coexisting spike patterns were discovered in pyramidal cells recorded from rat prefrontal cortex in vitro, in data obtained in vivo from area MT of the monkey and from the cat lateral geniculate nucleus. The spike patterns lasted from a few tens of milliseconds in vitro to several seconds in vivo. I will present a generalization of this technique to near multi-unit data, where patterns of synchronous firing may transiently occur.

Sponsor by:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Mathematical Biology Seminar
and
Center for Adaptive Neural Systems Seminar