HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal 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 Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gütig, R. Articles by Rotter, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gütig, R. Articles by Rotter, S.

Statistical Significance of Coincident Spikes: Count-Based Versus Rate-Based Statistics

guetig{at}biologie.uni-freiburg.de

Ad Aertsen

aertsen{at}biologie.uni-freiburg.de

Stefan Rotter

rotter{at}biologie.uni-freiburg.de, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biology III, Albert-Ludwigs-University, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Inspired by different conceptualizations of temporal neural coding schemes, there has been recent interest in the search for signs of precisely synchronized neural activity in the cortex. One method developed for this task is unitary-event analysis. This method tests multiple single-neuron recordings for short epochs with significantly more coincident spikes than expected from independent neurons. We reformulated the statistical test underlying this method using a coincidence count distribution based on empirical spike counts rather than on estimated spike probabilities. In the case of two neurons, the requirement of stationary firing rates, originally imposed on both neurons, can be relaxed; only the rate of one neuron needs to be stationary, while the other may follow an arbitrary time course. By analytical calculations of the test power curves of the original and the revised method, we demonstrate that the test power can be increased by a factor of two or more in physiologically realistic regimes. In addition, we analyze the effective significance levels of both methods for neural firing rates ranging between 0.2 Hz and 30 Hz.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. B. Katz Making Time With Taste. Focus on "Taste Response Variability and Temporal Coding in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract of the Rat" J Neurophysiol, September 1, 2003; 90(3): 1375 - 1376. [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Nakahara and S.-i. Amari Information-Geometric Measure for Neural Spikes Neural Comput., October 1, 2002; 14(10): 2269 - 2316. [Abstract] [Full Text]