neural coding of natural stimuli information at sub-millisecond resolution在毫秒级的分辨率自然刺激神经编码信息.pdfVIP

Neural Coding of Natural Stimuli: Information at Sub- Millisecond Resolution 1 2 3,4 5 Ilya Nemenman *, Geoffrey D. Lewen , William Bialek , Rob R. de Ruyter van Steveninck 1 Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States of America, 2 The Hun School of Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America, 3 Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America, 4 Lewis–Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America, 5 Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America Abstract Sensory information about the outside world is encoded by neurons in sequences of discrete, identical pulses termed action potentials or spikes. There is persistent controversy about the extent to which the precise timing of these spikes is relevant to the function of the brain. We revisit this issue, using the motion-sensitive neurons of the fly visual system as a test case. Our experimental methods allow us to deliver more nearly natural visual stimuli, comparable to those which flies encounter in free, acrobatic flight. New mathematical methods allow us to draw more reliable conclusions about the information content of neural responses even when the set of possible responses is very large. We find that significant amounts of visual information are represented by details of the spike train at millisecond and sub-millisecond precision, even though the sensory input has a correlation time of ,55 ms; different patterns of spike timing represent distinct