title: Common input explains higher-order correlations and entropy in a simple model of neural population activity.
abstract: Simultaneously recorded neurons exhibit correlations whose underlying causes are not known. Here, we use a population of threshold neurons receiving correlated inputs to model neural population recordings. We show analytically that small changes in second-order correlations can lead to large changes in higher-order redundancies, and that the resulting interactions have a strong impact on the entropy, sparsity, and statistical heat capacity of the population. Our findings for this simple model may explain some surprising effects recently observed in neural population recordings.
authors.affiliation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London, United Kingdom. jakob@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jakob H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Macke
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Opper
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bethge
mesh_terms: D019277:Entropy; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D016011:Normal Distribution