TY - GEN
T1 - Time-rescaling methods for the estimation and assessment of non-Poisson neural encoding models
AU - Pillow, Jonathan W.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Recent work on the statistical modeling of neural responses has focused on modulated renewal processes in which the spike rate is a function of the stimulus and recent spiking history. Typically, these models incorporate spike-history dependencies via either: (A) a conditionally-Poisson process with rate dependent on a linear projection of the spike train history (e.g., generalized linear model); or (B) a modulated non-Poisson renewal process (e.g., inhomogeneous gamma process). Here we show that the two approaches can be combined, resulting in a conditional renewal (CR) model for neural spike trains. This model captures both real-time and rescaled-time history effects, and can be fit by maximum likelihood using a simple application of the time-rescaling theorem [1]. We show that for any modulated renewal process model, the log-likelihood is concave in the linear filter parameters only under certain restrictive conditions on the renewal density (ruling out many popular choices, e.g. gamma with shape κ ≠ 1), suggesting that real-time history effects are easier to estimate than non-Poisson renewal properties. Moreover, we show that goodness-of-fit tests based on the time-rescaling theorem [1] quantify relative-time effects, but do not reliably assess accuracy in spike prediction or stimulus-response modeling. We illustrate the CR model with applications to both real and simulated neural data.
AB - Recent work on the statistical modeling of neural responses has focused on modulated renewal processes in which the spike rate is a function of the stimulus and recent spiking history. Typically, these models incorporate spike-history dependencies via either: (A) a conditionally-Poisson process with rate dependent on a linear projection of the spike train history (e.g., generalized linear model); or (B) a modulated non-Poisson renewal process (e.g., inhomogeneous gamma process). Here we show that the two approaches can be combined, resulting in a conditional renewal (CR) model for neural spike trains. This model captures both real-time and rescaled-time history effects, and can be fit by maximum likelihood using a simple application of the time-rescaling theorem [1]. We show that for any modulated renewal process model, the log-likelihood is concave in the linear filter parameters only under certain restrictive conditions on the renewal density (ruling out many popular choices, e.g. gamma with shape κ ≠ 1), suggesting that real-time history effects are easier to estimate than non-Poisson renewal properties. Moreover, we show that goodness-of-fit tests based on the time-rescaling theorem [1] quantify relative-time effects, but do not reliably assess accuracy in spike prediction or stimulus-response modeling. We illustrate the CR model with applications to both real and simulated neural data.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78650611326&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=78650611326&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:78650611326
SN - 9781615679119
T3 - Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 - Proceedings of the 2009 Conference
SP - 1473
EP - 1481
BT - Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 - Proceedings of the 2009 Conference
PB - Neural Information Processing Systems
T2 - 23rd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2009
Y2 - 7 December 2009 through 10 December 2009
ER -