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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 20, 2003, 23(20):7630-7641
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Neural Noise and Movement-Related Codes in the Macaque Supplementary Motor Area
Bruno B. Averbeck and
Daeyeol Lee
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science,
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
We analyzed the variability of spike counts and the coding capacity of
simultaneously recorded pairs of neurons in the macaque supplementary motor
area (SMA). We analyzed the mean-variance functions for single neurons, as
well as signal and noise correlations between pairs of neurons. All three
statistics showed a strong dependence on the bin width chosen for analysis.
Changes in the correlation structure of single neuron spike trains over
different bin sizes affected the mean-variance function, and signal and noise
correlations between pairs of neurons were much smaller at small bin widths,
increasing monotonically with the width of the bin. Analyses in the frequency
domain showed that the noise between pairs of neurons, on average, was most
strongly correlated at low frequencies, which explained the increase in noise
correlation with increasing bin width.
The coding performance was analyzed to determine whether the temporal
precision of spike arrival times and the interactions within and between
neurons could improve the prediction of the upcoming movement. We found that
in 62% of neuron pairs, the arrival times of spikes at a resolution
between 66 and 40 msec carried more information than spike counts in a 200
msec bin. In addition, in 19% of neuron pairs, inclusion of within (11%)- or
between-neuron (8%) correlations in spike trains improved decoding accuracy.
These results suggest that in some SMA neurons elements of the spatiotemporal
pattern of activity may be relevant for neural coding.
Key words: spike count variability; correlated noise; monkey; decoding; temporal code; rate code
Received May. 20, 2003;
revised Jun. 27, 2003;
accepted Jul. 7, 2003.
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