Temporal coding: Difference between revisions

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In the primary visual cortex of macaques, the timing of the first spike relative to the start of the stimulus was found to be more important than the interval between spikes. However, the interspike interval could be used to encode more information, which is especially important when the spike rate reaches its limit, as in high-contrast situations. For this reason, temporal coding may play a part in coding defined edges rather than gradual transitions.<ref>Victor, Johnathan D. (2005). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2005.08.002 "Spike train metrics"]. <i>Current Opinion in Neurobiology</i>, 15(5):585–592.</ref>

Similarly, in mitral/tufted cells in the olfactory bulb of mice, first-spike latency relative to the start of a sniffing action seemed to encode much of the information about an odor. This strategy of using spike latency would allowallows for rapid identification of and reaction to an odorant. In addition, some mitral/tufted cells have specific firing patterns for given odorants. This type of extra information couldmay help in recognizing a certain odor, but is not completely necessary, as average spike count over the course of the animal's sniffing was also a good identifier.<ref>Wilson, Rachel I. (2008). [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959438808000883 "Neural and behavioral mechanisms of olfactory perception"]. <i>Current Opinion in Neurobiology</i>, 18(4):408–412.</ref> Along the same lines, experiments done with the olfactory system of rabbits showed distinct patterns which correlated with different subsets of odorants, and a similar result was obtained in experiments with the locust olfactory system. <ref>Theunissen F, Miller JP. ''Temporal Encoding in Nervous Systems: A Rigorous Definition''. Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 2, 149—162; 1995.</ref> In this

==See also==