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Neural Coding

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Definition

Neural coding encapsulates the concept that neurons act as information-processing channels that take incoming information, integrate it, and produce a signal that contains information encoded in the neuronal (Akil and Lewis 1993) electrical activity pattern.

Detailed Description

The brain can be regarded as an information-processing machine. It takes sensory information from both the external world and our internal state, compares it with stored representations, be they genetically encoded or learned, and produces directed behavior. The basic units for information processing are single neurons. Single neurons act as information channels, taking inputs impinging upon them from other neurons (or sensory organs at the periphery), integrating those inputs, and emitting a response. The step from input to output, both in single neurons and across populations, gives rise to what has been called the neural code, where a code is a signal that carries an abstract representation of...

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References

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Further Reading

  • Doya K, Ishii S, Pouget A, Rao RPN (eds) (2007) Bayesian brain: probabilistic approaches to neural coding. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

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  • Quiroga RQ, Panzeri S (eds) (2013) Principles of neural coding. CRC Press, Boca Raton

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  • Rieke F, Warland D, de Ruyter van Steveninck R, Bialek W (1997) Spikes: exploring the neural code. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section on Neural Coding and Computation, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, NIMH/NIH/DHHS, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Barry Richmond

Authors
  1. Barry Richmond
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barry Richmond .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Richmond, B. (2014). Neural Coding. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_398-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_398-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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