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Coding of visual information by precisely correlated spikes in the lateral geniculate nucleus

Abstract

Correlated firing among neurons is widespread in the nervous system. Precisely correlated spiking, occurring on a millisecond time scale, has recently been observed among neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus with overlapping receptive fields. We have used an information-theoretic analysis to examine the role of these correlations in visual coding. Considerably more information can be extracted from two cells if temporal correlations between them are considered. The percentage increase in information depends on the degree of correlation; the average increase is approximately 20% for strongly correlated pairs. Thus, precise temporal correlation could be used as an additional information channel from thalamus to visual cortex.

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Figure 1: Correlated spiking between geniculate neurons with overlapping receptive fields.
Figure 2: Spike-sorting procedure.
Figure 3: Gain of information by considering the correlation between a pair of cells.
Figure 4: Dependence of increase in information on strength of correlation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to T. Wiesel for his support during the early phase of this work. K. Gegenfurtner allowed us to use his library of subroutines, YARL, to write programs for our visual stimuli. Technical assistance was provided by K. McGowan, C. Gallagher and D. Landsberger. The research was supported by NIH EY05253, EY06604, EY10115, the Klingenstein Fund, Fulbright/MEC and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Y.D. was a Schering-Plough Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation.

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Correspondence to R. Clay Reid.

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Dan, Y., Alonso, JM., Usrey, W. et al. Coding of visual information by precisely correlated spikes in the lateral geniculate nucleus. Nat Neurosci 1, 501–507 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/2217

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