New classification scheme of cortical sites with the neuronal spiking characteristics.

Multiple cortical areas are mutually compared on the bases of neuronal spiking characteristics measured through three dimensionless interspike interval statistical coefficients. The spike sequences were recorded from the prefrontal cortical area (PF), the pre-supplementary motor area (Pre-SMA), the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the rostral cingulate motor area (CMAr) of a behaving monkey performing a waiting period task. The distribution of three statistical coefficients is found to be largely dependent on the recording site. By measuring the Hellinger distances among those distributions, Pre-SMA, SMA and CMAr are found to be mutually similar in comparison with PF.