Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Organization of neuronal activity in neuronal populations
- 2 Cellular mechanisms underlying network synchrony in the medial temporal lobe
- 3 Cell assemblies and serial computation in neural circuits
- 4 Neural population recording in behaving animals: constituents of a neural code for behavioral decisions
- 5 Measuring distributed properties of neural representations beyond the decoding of local variables: implications for cognition
- 6 Single-neuron and ensemble contributions to decoding simultaneously recorded spike trains
- Part III Neuronal population information coding and plasticity in specific brain areas
- Part IV Functional integration of different brain areas in information processing and plasticity
- Part V Disturbances of population activity as the basis of schizophrenia
- Part VI Summary, conclusion, and future targets
- Index
- References
4 - Neural population recording in behaving animals: constituents of a neural code for behavioral decisions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Organization of neuronal activity in neuronal populations
- 2 Cellular mechanisms underlying network synchrony in the medial temporal lobe
- 3 Cell assemblies and serial computation in neural circuits
- 4 Neural population recording in behaving animals: constituents of a neural code for behavioral decisions
- 5 Measuring distributed properties of neural representations beyond the decoding of local variables: implications for cognition
- 6 Single-neuron and ensemble contributions to decoding simultaneously recorded spike trains
- Part III Neuronal population information coding and plasticity in specific brain areas
- Part IV Functional integration of different brain areas in information processing and plasticity
- Part V Disturbances of population activity as the basis of schizophrenia
- Part VI Summary, conclusion, and future targets
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
A major advantage conferred by recording from populations of neurons from any brain area is the potential to determine how that population encodes or represents information about a sensory input, behavioral task, motor movement, or cognitive decision. The ultimate purpose of populations of neural ensemble, recording and analysis can then be characterized as understanding: (1) what does the ensemble encode? (2) how does the ensemble encode it? and finally, (3) how do brain structures use that ensemble code?
In the hippocampus, the anatomy has been studied extensively such that connections between the major principal cell groups are well characterized and the local “functional” circuitry is currently under intense investigation. Neurons have been recorded in all major subfields in the hippocampus, and cell identification via firing signature or local analysis is not a problem in most cases. In the same manner, anatomical connections between subfields are also known; therefore, it is possible to position recording electrodes along specific anatomic projections to record ensembles of neurons with known anatomic connectivity. Given these factors, we have used multineuron recording techniques to determine how neural activity within hippocampal circuits is integrated with behavioral and cognitive events. However, as in many brain systems, the make-up of the ensembles is at least as critical as the techniques used to analyze the ensemble data, or “codes.” In addition, the functional connectivity that gives rise to such codes may not be constant; in fact variations in functional connectivity may produce different codes for different cognitive events.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Information Processing by Neuronal Populations , pp. 74 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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