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Neural coding and contextual influences in the whisker system

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Abstract

A fundamental problem in neuroscience, to which Prof. Segundo has made seminal contributions, is to understand how action potentials represent events in the external world. The aim of this paper is to review the issue of neural coding in the context of the rodent whiskers, an increasingly popular model system. Key issues we consider are: the role of spike timing; mechanisms of spike timing; decoding and context-dependence. Significant insight has come from the development of rigorous, information theoretic frameworks for tackling these questions, in conjunction with suitably designed experiments. We review both the theory and experimental studies. In contrast to the classical view that neurons are noisy and unreliable, it is becoming clear that many neurons in the subcortical whisker pathway are remarkably reliable and, by virtue of spike timing with millisecond-precision, have high bandwidth for conveying sensory information. In this way, even small (~200 neuron) subcortical modules are able to support the sensory processing underlying sophisticated whisker-dependent behaviours. Future work on neural coding in cortex will need to consider new findings that responses are highly dependent on context, including behavioural and internal states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Rasmus S. Petersen & Stefano Panzeri

  2. Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego, 30., 16163, Genoa, Italy

    Stefano Panzeri

  3. Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante UMH-CSIC, Sant Joan d’Alacant, Spain

    Miguel Maravall

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  1. Rasmus S. Petersen
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  2. Stefano Panzeri
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  3. Miguel Maravall
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Correspondence to Rasmus S. Petersen.

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This article is part of a special issue on Neuronal Dynamics of Sensory Coding.

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Petersen, R.S., Panzeri, S. & Maravall, M. Neural coding and contextual influences in the whisker system. Biol Cybern 100, 427–446 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-008-0290-5

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