title: Conditioned spikes: a simple and fast method to represent rates and temporal patterns in multielectrode recordings.
abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that the brain utilizes distributed codes that can only be analyzed by simultaneously recording the activity of multiple neurons. This paper introduces a new methodology for studying neural ensemble recordings. The method uses a novel representation to provide complementary information about the stimuli which are contained in the temporal pattern of the spike sequence. By using this procedure, a high correlation of synchronized events with stimuli times is apparent. To quantify the results and to compare the performance of this method against the most traditional raster plot, we have used Fano factor and cross-correlation analysis. Our results suggest that several consecutive spikes from different neurons within an extended time window may encode behaviorally relevant information. We propose that this new representation, in addition to the other approaches currently used (standard raster plots, multivariate statistical methods, neuronal networks, information theory, etc.), can be a useful procedure to describe population spike dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, F.C.E.N. Universidad de Buenos Aires and CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Guillermo J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bongard
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Louis
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fernández
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004566:Electrodes; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011817:Rabbits; D011930:Reaction Time; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception