Rate synchronization as a deterministic signal in neural spike trains

• Published in: Neurocomputing (Amsterdam) Vol. 58; pp. 1145 - 1151
• Main Authors: Ortega, G.J., Bongard, M., Louis, E., Fernandez, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2004
• Subjects: Ganglion cells; Neural code; Synchronization; Neural code; 87.10.+e; 89.75.Fb; Synchronization; Ganglion cells; 05.45.Tp
• ISSN: 0925-2312; 1872-8286
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neucom.2004.01.179

We introduce a simple method to analyze recorded spike trains in sensory neurons that allows to reveal deterministic aspects of spiking dynamics. In particular, events with an associated firing rate f r , are defined whenever two successive spikes on a given cell α occur at times t i α and t i−1 α such that ( f r +Δ f r ) −1<| t i α − t i−1 α |<( f r −Δ f r ) −1, for a given Δ f r . We then look for synchronization of those events on different cells. Our results show that synchronized events are sharply correlated with stimuli. The method is used to analyze experimental time series obtained on retinal ganglion cells and synthetic time series.