Tiesinga Paul, Fellous Jean-Marc, Sejnowski Terrence J
Physics and Astronomy Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3255, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008 Feb;9(2):97-107. doi: 10.1038/nrn2315.
A train of action potentials (a spike train) can carry information in both the average firing rate and the pattern of spikes in the train. But can such a spike-pattern code be supported by cortical circuits? Neurons in vitro produce a spike pattern in response to the injection of a fluctuating current. However, cortical neurons in vivo are modulated by local oscillatory neuronal activity and by top-down inputs. In a cortical circuit, precise spike patterns thus reflect the interaction between internally generated activity and sensory information encoded by input spike trains. We review the evidence for precise and reliable spike timing in the cortex and discuss its computational role.
一串动作电位（一个脉冲序列）可以通过平均发放率和序列中的脉冲模式来携带信息。但是这样的脉冲模式编码能否得到皮层回路的支持呢？体外培养的神经元在注入波动电流时会产生脉冲模式。然而，体内的皮层神经元受到局部振荡神经元活动和自上而下输入的调节。在皮层回路中，精确的脉冲模式因此反映了内部产生的活动与由输入脉冲序列编码的感觉信息之间的相互作用。我们回顾了皮层中精确且可靠的脉冲定时的证据，并讨论了其计算作用。
