title: Copula regression analysis of simultaneously recorded frontal eye field and inferotemporal spiking activity during object-based working memory.
abstract: Inferotemporal (IT) neurons are known to exhibit persistent, stimulus-selective activity during the delay period of object-based working memory tasks. Frontal eye field (FEF) neurons show robust, spatially selective delay period activity during memory-guided saccade tasks. We present a copula regression paradigm to examine neural interaction of these two types of signals between areas IT and FEF of the monkey during a working memory task. This paradigm is based on copula models that can account for both marginal distribution over spiking activity of individual neurons within each area and joint distribution over ensemble activity of neurons between areas. Considering the popular GLMs as marginal models, we developed a general and flexible likelihood framework that uses the copula to integrate separate GLMs into a joint regression analysis. Such joint analysis essentially leads to a multivariate analog of the marginal GLM theory and hence efficient model estimation. In addition, we show that Granger causality between spike trains can be readily assessed via the likelihood ratio statistic. The performance of this method is validated by extensive simulations, and compared favorably to the widely used GLMs. When applied to spiking activity of simultaneously recorded FEF and IT neurons during working memory task, we observed significant Granger causality influence from FEF to IT, but not in the opposite direction, suggesting the role of the FEF in the selection and retention of visual information during working memory. The copula model has the potential to provide unique neurophysiological insights about network properties of the brain.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and.
authors.forename: Kelsey L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
authors.forename: Xiajing
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8329-0714
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and.
authors.forename: Behrad
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-027X
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Noudoost
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
authors.forename: Mingyao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, and.
authors.forename: Tirin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, hualou.liang@drexel.edu.
authors.forename: Hualou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D011338:Probability Theory; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000166:cytology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014851:Wakefulness
keywords: copula; generalized linear model; neural data analysis; spike trains