Elad Schneidman, Princeton, 3/11/03
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Universality and Individuality in a Neural Code
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The problem of neural coding is to understand how sequences of action
potentials are related to sensory stimuli, motor outputs, or
(ultimately) thoughts and intentions. One clear question is whether the
same coding rules are used by different neurons, or by corresponding
neurons in different individuals. We present a quantitative formulation
of this problem using ideas from information theory, and apply this
approach to the analysis of experiments in the fly visual system. We
find significant individual differences in the structure of the code,
particularly in the way that temporal patterns of spikes are used to
convey information beyond that available from variations in spike rate.
On the other hand, all the flies in our ensemble exhibit a high coding
efficiency, so that every spike carries the same amount of information
in all the individuals. Thus the neural code has a quantifiable mixture
of individuality and universality. 
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Joint work with Naama Brenner, Noam Slonim, Naftali Tishby, Rob R. de
Ruyter van Steveninck and William Bialek