title: What single-cell stimulation has told us about neural coding.
abstract: In recent years, single-cell stimulation experiments have resulted in substantial progress towards directly linking single-cell activity to movement and sensation. Recent advances in electrical recording and stimulation techniques have enabled control of single neuron spiking in vivo and have contributed to our understanding of neuronal coding schemes in the brain. Here, we review single neuron stimulation effects in different brain structures and how they vary with artificially inserted spike patterns. We briefly compare single neuron stimulation with other brain stimulation techniques. A key advantage of single neuron stimulation is the precise control of the evoked spiking patterns. Systematically varying spike patterns and measuring evoked movements and sensations enables 'decoding' of the single-cell spike patterns and provides insights into the readout mechanisms of sensory and motor cortical spikes.
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, Philippstrasse 13 Haus 6, 10115 Berlin, Germany NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, Humboldt University of Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany guy.doron@charite.de.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Doron
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, Philippstrasse 13 Haus 6, 10115 Berlin, Germany michael.brecht@bccn-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brecht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D062308:Optogenetics / Q000379:methods; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology
keywords: motor control; nanostimulation; patch clamp; sensation; single neuron