Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space.
An important task of the brain is to represent the outside world. It is unclear how the brain may do this, however, as it can only rely on neural responses and has no independent access to external stimuli in order to "decode" what those responses mean. We investigate what can be learned a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2008-10-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2565599?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818503533247332352 |
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| author | Carina Curto Vladimir Itskov |
| author_facet | Carina Curto Vladimir Itskov |
| author_sort | Carina Curto |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An important task of the brain is to represent the outside world. It is unclear how the brain may do this, however, as it can only rely on neural responses and has no independent access to external stimuli in order to "decode" what those responses mean. We investigate what can be learned about a space of stimuli using only the action potentials (spikes) of cells with stereotyped -- but unknown -- receptive fields. Using hippocampal place cells as a model system, we show that one can (1) extract global features of the environment and (2) construct an accurate representation of space, up to an overall scale factor, that can be used to track the animal's position. Unlike previous approaches to reconstructing position from place cell activity, this information is derived without knowing place fields or any other functions relating neural responses to position. We find that simply knowing which groups of cells fire together reveals a surprising amount of structure in the underlying stimulus space; this may enable the brain to construct its own internal representations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:25:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-da6303baf1b649d29bce3eab4971c6e3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:25:14Z |
| publishDate | 2008-10-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-da6303baf1b649d29bce3eab4971c6e32022-12-22T01:33:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582008-10-01410e100020510.1371/journal.pcbi.1000205Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space.Carina CurtoVladimir ItskovAn important task of the brain is to represent the outside world. It is unclear how the brain may do this, however, as it can only rely on neural responses and has no independent access to external stimuli in order to "decode" what those responses mean. We investigate what can be learned about a space of stimuli using only the action potentials (spikes) of cells with stereotyped -- but unknown -- receptive fields. Using hippocampal place cells as a model system, we show that one can (1) extract global features of the environment and (2) construct an accurate representation of space, up to an overall scale factor, that can be used to track the animal's position. Unlike previous approaches to reconstructing position from place cell activity, this information is derived without knowing place fields or any other functions relating neural responses to position. We find that simply knowing which groups of cells fire together reveals a surprising amount of structure in the underlying stimulus space; this may enable the brain to construct its own internal representations.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2565599?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Carina Curto Vladimir Itskov Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. |
| title_full | Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. |
| title_fullStr | Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. |
| title_short | Cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space. |
| title_sort | cell groups reveal structure of stimulus space |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2565599?pdf=render |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carinacurto cellgroupsrevealstructureofstimulusspace AT vladimiritskov cellgroupsrevealstructureofstimulusspace |