Universal statistical behavior of neural spike trains

Naama Brenner, Oded Agam, William Bialek, Rob R. De Ruyter Van Steveninck

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

The statistical properties of spike trains generated by a sensory neuron are studied. It is shown that the spike trains exhibit universal statistical behavior over short times, modulated by a strongly stimulus-dependent behavior over long times. This decomposition is accounted for by a “frequency integrator” model, under conditions of time scale separation. We provide explicit formulas for the statistical properties in both the universal and the stimulus-dependent regimes, which are in very good agreement with the data. The universal regime is characterized by a dimensionless free parameter, which is observed experimentally to remain constant under different external stimuli.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4000-4003
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume81
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2 1998

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Universal statistical behavior of neural spike trains'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this