Ideal observer of single neuron activity

We )nd that adding certain amounts of inhibitory inputs to a neuron improves its capability of accurately decoding the input information. The optimal ratio r of inhibitory to excitatory inputs for decoding the input information from an observation of the e,erent interspike intervals is calculated. Surprisingly, the Fisher information could be zero for certain values of the ratio, seemingly implying that it is impossible to read out the encoded information at these values. By analyzing the maximum likelihood estimate of the input information, it is then concluded that the input information is, in fact, most easily estimated at the points where the Fisher information vanishes. c © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.