On the number of neurons and time scale of integration underlying the formation of percepts in the brain.

ABSTRACT: All of our perceptual experiences arise from the activity of neural populations. Here we study the formation of such percepts under the assumption that they emerge from a linear readout, i.e., a weighted sum of the neurons' firing rates. We show that this assumption constrains the trial-to-trial covariance structure of neural activities and animal behavior. The predicted covariance structure depends on the readout parameters, and in particular on the temporal integration window w and typical number of neurons K used in the formation of the percept. Using these predictions, we show how to infer the readout parameters from joint measurements of a subject's behavior and neural activities. We consider three such scenarios: (1) recordings from the complete neural population, (2) recordings of n

SUBMITTER: Wohrer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4368836 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature