A fundamental issue in neuroscience is how to identify the multiple biophysical mechanisms through which neurons generate observed patterns of spiking activity. In previous work, we proposed a method for linking observed patterns of spiking activity to specific biophysical mechanisms based on a state space modeling framework and a sequential Monte Carlo, or particle filter, estimation algorithm...

The nervous system represents time dependent signals in sequences of discrete, identical action potentials or spikes; information is carried only in the spike arrival times. We show how to quantify this information, in bits, free from any assumptions about which features of the spike train or input signal are most important, and we apply this approach to the analysis of experiments on a motion ...

In the population coding framework, we consider how the response distributions affect output distribution. A general theory for the output of neuronal population code is presented when the spike train is a renewal process. Under a given condition on the response distribution, the most probable value of the output distribution is the center of input-preferred values, whereas in the other cases t...

Multi-electrode arrays (MEA) allow experimentalists to record extracellularly from many neurons simultaneously for long durations. They therefore often require that the data analyst spends a considerable amount of time first sorting the spikes, then doing again and again the same basic analysis on the different spike trains isolated from the raw data. This spike train analysis also often genera...

Collections of occurrence times of events taking place irregularly in time provide a fairly common, but not broadly discussed, ata type. This article is concerned with the particular circumstance offiring times in nerve cells that interact and form networks. The article reviews a progression fstatistical nalysis techniques: description, association as measured by moments and correlation, regres...

We examined the coding of sound-source location by ensembles of neurons in the auditory cortex. Broadband noise bursts were presented from loudspeakers throughout 360 degrees in the horizontal plane. Sound levels varied from 20 to 40 dB above neural thresholds. We recorded temporal spike patterns simultaneously at 16 recording sites in area A2 of alpha-chloralose-anesthetized cats. Spike patter...

Previous studies have demonstrated that the spike patterns of cortical neurons vary systematically as a function of sound-source location such that the response of a single neuron can signal the location of a sound source throughout 360 degrees of azimuth. The present study examined specific features of spike patterns that might transmit information related to sound-source location. Analysis wa...

Current spike sorting methods focus on clustering neurons' characteristic spike waveforms. The resulting spike-sorted data are typically used to estimate how covariates of interest modulate the firing rates of neurons. However, when these covariates do modulate the firing rates, they provide information about spikes' identities, which thus far have been ignored for the purpose of spike sorting....

We propose a novel paradigm for spike train decoding, which avoids entirely spike sorting based on waveform measurements. This paradigm directly uses the spike train collected at recording electrodes from thresholding the bandpassed voltage signal. Our approach is a paradigm, not an algorithm, since it can be used with any of the current decoding algorithms, such as population vector or likelih...

Neurons perform computations, and convey the results of those computations through the statistical structure of their output spike trains. Here we present a practical method, grounded in the information-theoretic analysis of prediction, for inferring a minimal representation of that structure and for characterizing its complexity. Starting from spike trains, our approach finds their causal stat...