Panzeri S, Petersen R S, Schultz S R, Lebedev M, Diamond M E
Neural Systems Group, Department of Psychology, Ridley Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.
Neuron. 2001 Mar;29(3):769-77. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00251-3.
Although the timing of single spikes is known to code for time-varying features of a sensory stimulus, it remains unclear whether time is also exploited in the neuronal coding of the spatial structure of the environment, where nontemporal stimulus features are fundamental. This report demonstrates that, in the whisker representation of rat cortex, precise spike timing of single neurons increases the information transmitted about stimulus location by 44%, compared to that transmitted only by the total number of spikes. Crucial to this code is the timing of the first spike after whisker movement. Complex, single neuron spike patterns play a smaller, synergistic role. Timing permits very few spikes to transmit high quantities of information about a behaviorally significant, spatial stimulus.
虽然已知单个尖峰的时间编码感觉刺激的时变特征，但尚不清楚在环境空间结构的神经元编码中是否也利用了时间，而在这种编码中，非时间刺激特征是基本的。本报告表明，在大鼠皮层的触须表征中，与仅由尖峰总数传递的信息相比，单个神经元的精确尖峰时间使关于刺激位置传递的信息增加了44%。此编码的关键在于触须运动后第一个尖峰的时间。复杂的单个神经元尖峰模式起较小的协同作用。时间允许极少数尖峰传递关于行为上重要的空间刺激的大量信息。
