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Published on: June 2, 2014
Preference of sensory neural coding for 1/f signals
Yuguo Yu1, Richard Romero, Tai Sing Lee
1Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Abstract:
We investigated the influences of different types of temporal correlations in the input signal on the functions and coding properties of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1). We found that the temporal transfer functions of V1 neurons exhibit higher gain, and the spike responses exhibit higher coding efficiency and information transmission rates, for the 1/f (natural long-term correlation) signals than for 1/f(0) (no correlation) and 1/f(2) (stronger long-term correlation) signals. These results suggest that the intermediate long-term correlation ubiquitous to natural signals may play an important role in shaping and optimizing the machinery of neurons in their adaptation to the natural environment.
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