Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo
Published on: March 31, 2016
Correlations between the activity of sensory neurons and behavior: how much do they tell us about a neuron's
Hendrikje Nienborg1, Bruce Cumming
1Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States. nienborg@salk.edu
Abstract:
How the activity of sensory neurons elicits perceptions and guides behavior is central to our understanding of the brain and is a subject of intense investigation in neuroscience. Correlations between the activity of sensory neurons and behavior have been widely observed and are sometimes used to infer how neurons are used to guide a certain behavior. This view is challenged firstly by theoretical considerations that these correlations rely on the existence of correlated noise and its structure, and secondly by recent empirical observations suggesting that such correlated noise is not a fixed network property but that it depends on various sources, and varies with a subject's mental state.
Related Concept Videos
Correlations
Neuronal Communication
The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.
The Synapse
Neurons as Communicators of the Brain
Cell Body
The cell body, also known...
Synaptic Signaling

