Abstract
Neuronal cortical spike trains contain precisely replicating patterns whose presence cannot be accounted for by chance production. A comparison of the number of triplets of spikes present two times with the number of doublets replicated three times in the same window duration gives a frequency-insensitive measure of this type of fine temporal organisation. By varying the tolerance with which such precisely replicating patterns are detected, one can evaluate the accuracy of spike timing in spike trains. In the sample of data here analysed, it was found that replicating patterns were best seen in the precision range 0.4–1.4 ms (a result evidently at variance with a simple ‘integrate and fire’ model of neurons). Surprisingly, the fine temporal structure of spike trains thus evidenced was stronger at relatively low firing rate discharges and was present in both the ‘spontaneous’ and ‘evoked’ responses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abeles M (1990) Paper presented to the symposium Temporal correlations and temporal coding in the brain, Paris, Abstr. Book, pp 34–36
Abeles M, Gerstein GL (1988) Detecting spatiotemporal firing patterns among simultaneously recorded single neurones. J Neurophys 60:909–924
Bair W, Koch C, Newsome W, Britten K (1992) Power spectrum analysis of bursting cells in area MT in the behaving monkey. J Neurosci 14:2870–2892
Beaux JC, Lestienne R, Imbert M, Grandjean B (1992) Modulations corticales de la structure temporelle fine des trains d'impulsions dans lecorps genouillé latéral dorsal du chat. C R Acad Sci [III] 314:31–36
Clements JD, Lester RA, Tong G, Jahr CE, Westbrook GL (1992) The time course of glutamate in the synaptic cleft. Science 258:1498–1501
Dayhoff JE, Gerstein GL (1983) Favored patterns in spike trains. II. Application. J Neurophysiol 49:1349–1363
Eckhorn R, Bauer R, Jordan W, Brosch M, Kruze W, Munk M, Reitboeck HJ (1988) Coherent oscillations: a mechanism of feature linking in the visual cortex? Biol Cybern 60:121–130
Fujita I, Konishi M (1991) The role of GABAergic inhibition in processing of interaural time difference in the owl's auditory system. J Neurosci 11:722–739
Gabbott PLA, Martin KAC, Whitteridge D (1987) Connections between pyramidal neurons in layer 5 of cat visual cortex (area 17). J Comp Neurol 259:364–381
Gray CM, Singer W (1989) Stimulus specific neuronal oscillations in orientation columns of cat visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86:1698–1702
Istvan PJ, Zarzecki P (1994) Intrinsic discharge patterns and somatosensory inputs for neurons in raccoon primary somatosensory cortex. J Neurophys 72:2827–2839
Konishi M, Takahashi TT, Wagner H, Sullivan WE, Carr CE (1988) Neurophysiological and anatomical substrates of sound localization in the owl. In: Edelman GM, Gall WE, Cowan WH (eds) Auditory function I. Neurobiological bases of hearing. Wiley, New York, pp 721–745
Lestienne R (1994) Repeated patterns in LGN, visual cortical and temporal discharges. Proc Soc Neurosci 20:22
Lestienne R, Strehler BL (1987) Time structure and stimulus dependence of precisely replicating patterns present in monkey cortical neuronal spike trains. Brain Res 437:214–238
Lestienne R, Strehler BL (1988) Differences between monkey visual cortex cells in triplet and ghost doublet informational symbols relationships. Biol Cybern 59:337–352
Lestienne R, Gary-Bobo E, Prybyslawski J, Saillour P, Imbert M (1990) Temporal correlations in modulated evoked responses in the visual cortical cells of the cat. Biol Cybern 62:425–440
McCormick DA, Connors BW, Lighthall JW, Prince DA (1985) Comparative electrophysiology of pyramidal and sparsely spiny stellate neurons of the neocortex. J Neurophys 54:782–806
Richmond BJ, Optican LM (1987) Temporal encoding of two-dimensional patterns by single units in primate temporal cortex. II. Quantification of response waveform. J Neurophys 57:147–161
Rose G, Heiligenberg W (1985) Temporal hyperacuity in the electric sense of fish. Nature 318:178–180
Sherman SM, Koch C (1986) The control of retinogeniculate transmission in the mammalian lateral geniculate nucleus. Exp Brain Res 63:1–20
Softky WR (1994) Sub-millisecond coincidence detection in active dendritic trees. Neuroscience 58:15–41
Softky WR, Koch C (1993) The highly irregular firing of cortical cells is inconsistent with temporal integration of random EPSPs. J Neurosci 13:334–350
Steriade M (1984) The excitatory-inhibitory response sequence in thalamic and neocortical cells: state related changes and regulatory systems. In: Edelman GM, Gall WE, Cowan WH (eds) Dynamics aspects of neocortical function. Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp 107–157
Strehler BL, Lestienne R (1986) Evidence on precise time-coded symbols and memory of patterns in monkey cortical neuronal spike trains. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:9812–9816
Strehler BL, Lestienne R (1989) Presence of ghost doublets of coded neuronal patterns: relation to synaptic memory storage. Synapse 3:19–29
Suga N, Horikawa J (1986) Multiple time axes for representation of echo delays in the auditory cortex of the mustached bat. J Neurophysiol 55:776–805
Suga N, Olsen JF, Butman JA (1990) Specialized subsystems for processing biologically important complex sounds: cross-correlation analysis for ranging in the bat's brain. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol LV:585–597
Thomson A, Deuchars T (1994) Temporal and spatial properties of local circuits in neocortex. Trends Neurosci 17:119–126
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lestienne, R. Determination of the precision of spike timing in the visual cortex of anaesthetised cats. Biol. Cybern. 74, 55–61 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00199137
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00199137