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SUMMARY:The contribution of millisecond spike timing of cortical neurons t
 o sensory coding and perceptual decisions - Stefano Panzeri\, Italian Inst
 itute of Technology
DTSTART:20151211T100000Z
DTEND:20151211T110000Z
UID:TALK62839@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Guillaume Hennequin
DESCRIPTION:When a neuron responds to a sensory stimulus\, two fundamental
  codes may transmit the information specifying stimulus identity—spike r
 ate (the total number of spikes in the sequence\, normalized by time) and 
 spike timing (the detailed millisecond-scale temporal structure of the res
 ponse). Previous studies reported that millisecond-precise spike times of 
 cortical neurons carry sensory information that cannot be extracted from s
 pike rates defined over tens of milliseconds. However\, it has remained un
 clear whether the extra information available in spike timing is actually 
 used by the brain. To address this issue\, we developed a mathematical app
 roach based on information theory to relate sensory information content of
  spike rates and spike times to the behavioral outcome in the same trial o
 f a perceptual discrimination task. Using this formalism to analyze neuron
 al responses in primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortex perfo
 rming a whisker-based somatosensory discrimination task\, we found that sp
 ike timing makes crucial contributions to tactile perception\, complementi
 ng and surpassing those made by rate. The language by which somatosensory 
 cortical neurons transmit information\, and the readout mechanism used to 
 produce behavior\, appears to rely on multiplexed signals from spike rate 
 and timing.
LOCATION:Cambridge University Engineering Department\, CBL\, BE-438 (http:
 //learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Directions)
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