Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code (Computational Neuroscience) - Hardcover

Rieke, Fred; Etc.; Warland, David; Steveninck, Rob De Ruyter Van; Bialek, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262181746 ISBN 13: 9780262181747

Verlag: MIT Press, 1996

Inhaltsangabe

Our perception of the world is driven by input from the sensory nerves. This input arrives encoded as sequences of identical spikes. Much of neural computation involves processing these spike trains. What does it mean to say that a certain set of spikes is the right answer to a computational problem? In what sense does a spike train convey information about the sensory world? Spikes begins by providing precise formulations of these and related questions about the representation of sensory signals in neural spike trains. The answers to these questions are then pursued in experiments on sensory neurons.

The authors invite the reader to play the role of a hypothetical observer inside the brain who makes decisions based on the incoming spike trains. Rather than asking how a neuron responds to a given stimulus, the authors ask how the brain could make inferences about an unknown stimulus from a given neural response. The flavor of some problems faced by the organism is captured by analyzing the way in which the observer can make a running reconstruction of the sensory stimulus as it evolves in time. These ideas are illustrated by examples from experiments on several biological systems.

Intended for neurobiologists with an interest in mathematical analysis of neural data as well as the growing number of physicists and mathematicians interested in information processing by "real" nervous systems, Spikes provides a self-contained review of relevant concepts in information theory and statistical decision theory. A quantitative framework is used to pose precise questions about the structure of the neural code. These questions in turn influence both the design and analysis of experiments on sensory neurons.

Über diesen Titel

Críticas

""Spikes" is a really wonderful book. The particular theory about how the brain works that informs the presentation, and thus determines how neural coding is to be described, is clearly thought through and the arguments are attractively and intelligently presented."--Charles F. Stevens, The Salk Institute

Reseña del editor

Our perception of the world is driven by sensory input which is sent to our brains through sequences of spikes carried by sensory neurons, an incoming/outgoing "language of the brain". This book explores the way in which the nervous system represents or encodes these sensory signals, asking in particular whether a linguistic analogy makes sense, whether as in language, there are notions of context that can influence the meaning of the individual words, and whether these questions can be given precise formulations in the design and analysis of experiments on neurons. The authors invite the reader to play the role of a homunculus, a hypothetical observer inside the brain who makes decisions based on the incoming spike trains. This perspective differs from the more traditional ones in two respects: rather than asking how a neuron responds to a given stimulus, the authors ask how the brain could make inferences about an unknown stimulus from a given neural response. The flavour of some problems faced by the organism is captured by analyzing the way in which the observer can make a running reconstruction of the sensory stimulus as it evolves in time. These ideas are illustrated by examples from experiments on many biological systems. Intended for neurobiologists with an interest in mathematical analysis of neural data as well as the growing number of physicists and mathematicians interested in information processing by "real" nervous systems, "Spikes" provides a self-contained review of relevant concepts in information theory and statistical decision theory. A quantitative framework is used to pose precise questions about the structure of the neural code and these questions in turn influence both the design of experiments and the data analysis.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MIT Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1996
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0262181746
• ISBN 13: 9780262181747
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 413
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar