Shows how crucial is timing of spike discharges in the coding and transport of neuronal information

What is it about?

The computational role of discharge rates of neurons in information processing in the brain seems unlikely today, even if the principle of psychoneural identity has led to remarkable practical results. Detection of coincidences, oscillation of neuronal territories, phase setting and/or phase advances of neuronal emissions, and frequent changes in synapses efficiencies by the temporal mechanism of 'spike timing dependent plasticity' (STDP), suggest the use by the brain of a precise temporal coding, typically up to a fraction of millisecond (ms), despite the fact that a single spike has a width of 2-3 ms. To understand the functioning of neural networks, the recording of neural discharges in animal models has been and continues to be very useful, but new non-invasive techniques nowadays allow to ascertain the use of the same principles in the human brain.

Featured Image