QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, April 27, 2005, 25(17):4207-4216; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4697-04.2005

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (11) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Redundancy and Synergy of Neuronal Ensembles in Motor Cortex

Nandakumar S. Narayanan,^1,2 Eyal Y. Kimchi,^1,2 and Mark Laubach^1,2,3,4

¹The John B. Pierce Laboratory, ²Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, and Departments of ³Neurobiology and ⁴Biomedical Engineering, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519

We examined the ability of neuronal ensembles from rat motor cortex to predict behavioral performance during a reaction time task. We found that neurons that were the best individual predictors of task performance were not necessarily the neurons that contributed the most predictive information to an ensemble of neurons. To understand this result, we applied a framework for quantifying statistical relationships between neurons (Schneidman et al., 2003) to all possible combinations of neurons within our ensembles. We found that almost all neurons (96%) contributed redundant predictive information to the ensembles. This redundancy resulted in the maintenance of predictive information despite the removal of many neurons from each ensemble. Moreover, the balance of synergistic and redundant interactions depended on the number of neurons in the ensemble. Small ensembles could exhibit synergistic interactions (e.g., 23 ± 9% of ensembles with two neurons were synergistic). In contrast, larger ensembles exhibited mostly redundant interactions (e.g., 99 ± 0.1% of ensembles with eight neurons were redundant). We discuss these results with regard to constraints on interpreting neuronal ensemble data and with respect to motor cortex involvement in reaction time performance.

Key words: motor cortex; population coding; neuronal ensembles; reaction time; synergy; redundancy

---

Received June 4, 2004; revised March 11, 2005; accepted March 14, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. S. Narayanan and M. Laubach Neuronal Correlates of Post-Error Slowing in the Rat Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex J Neurophysiol, July 1, 2008; 100(1): 520 - 525. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				O. Tudusciuc and A. Nieder Neuronal population coding of continuous and discrete quantity in the primate posterior parietal cortex PNAS, September 4, 2007; 104(36): 14513 - 14518. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Liu, K. Kim, C. Li, and M. M. Barr FMRFamide-Like Neuropeptides and Mechanosensory Touch Receptor Neurons Regulate Male Sexual Turning Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans J. Neurosci., July 4, 2007; 27(27): 7174 - 7182. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. B. Averbeck and D. Lee Effects of Noise Correlations on Information Encoding and Decoding J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2006; 95(6): 3633 - 3644. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Marceglia, G. Foffani, A. M. Bianchi, G. Baselli, F. Tamma, M. Egidi, and A. Priori Dopamine-dependent non-linear correlation between subthalamic rhythms in Parkinson's disease J. Physiol., March 15, 2006; 571(3): 579 - 591. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Gutierrez, J. M. Carmena, M. A. L. Nicolelis, and S. A. Simon Orbitofrontal Ensemble Activity Monitors Licking and Distinguishes Among Natural Rewards J Neurophysiol, January 1, 2006; 95(1): 119 - 133. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. M. Carmena, M. A. Lebedev, C. S. Henriquez, and M. A. L. Nicolelis Stable Ensemble Performance with Single-Neuron Variability during Reaching Movements in Primates J. Neurosci., November 16, 2005; 25(46): 10712 - 10716. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help