title: Encoding with synchrony: phase-delayed inhibition allows for reliable and specific stimulus detection.
abstract: Synchronized oscillations are observed in a diverse array of neuronal systems, suggesting that synchrony represents a common mechanism used by the brain to encode and relay information. Coherent population activity can be deciphered by a decoder neuron with a high spike threshold or by a decoder using phase-delayed inhibition. These two mechanisms are fundamentally different - a high spike threshold detects a minimum number of synchronous input spikes (absolute synchrony), while phase-delayed inhibition requires a fixed fraction of incoming spikes to be synchronous (relative synchrony). We show that, in a system with noisy encoders where stimuli are encoded through synchrony, phase-delayed inhibition enables the creation of a decoder that can respond both reliably and specifically to a stimulus, while a high spike threshold does not.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, 127 Vincent Hall, 206 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Badal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Mainak
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*