title: A temporal channel for information in sparse sensory coding.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sparse codes are found in nearly every sensory system, but the role of spike timing in sparse sensory coding is unclear. Here, we use the olfactory system of awake locusts to test whether the timing of spikes in Kenyon cells, a population of neurons that responds sparsely to odors, carries sensory information to and influences the responses of follower neurons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We characterized two major classes of direct followers of Kenyon cells. With paired intracellular and field potential recordings made during odor presentations, we found that these followers contain information about odor identity in the temporal patterns of their spikes rather than in the spike rate, the spike phase, or the identities of the responsive neurons. Subtly manipulating the relative timing of Kenyon cell spikes with temporally and spatially structured microstimulation reliably altered the response patterns of the followers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show that even remarkably sparse spiking responses can provide information through stimulus-specific variations in timing on the order of tens to hundreds of milliseconds and that these variations can determine the responses of downstream neurons. These results establish the importance of spike timing in a sparse sensory code.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: guptan@iitk.ac.in.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: stopferm@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stopfer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006110:Grasshoppers / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D024521:Mushroom Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D055696:Olfactory Perception