Cortical songs revisited: a lesson in statistics.
Recordings from single neurons in the cortex have revealed precisely repeating patterns of synaptic events. These repeats are known as cortical "motifs" and have been suggested to reflect the precise replay of spatiotemporal firing sequences ("synfire" chains). In this issue of Neuron, Mokeichev et al. use compelling statistical analysis to show that, rather than being evidence of deterministic synfire chains, such cortical motifs are bound to appear by chance due to the natural dynamics of voltage fluctuations in neurons.
McLelland
Douglas
D
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom.
Paulsen
Ole
O
D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology