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Spike correlations - what can they tell about synchrony?
Tatjana Tchumatchenko1, Theo Geisel, Maxim Volgushev
1Department of Nonlinear Dynamics, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Göttingen, Germany.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|May 28, 2011
Summary
Pairwise correlation coefficients, commonly used to measure neuronal synchrony, may fail to detect correlated activity. This study reveals these popular measures can vanish even when neuronal communication is present.
Area of Science:
- Computational Neuroscience
- Systems Neuroscience
- Neural Coding
Background:
- Neural population activity underlies sensory and cognitive functions.
- Techniques like two-photon calcium imaging allow monitoring of large neuronal populations.
- Theoretical tools for analyzing population neural activity are still developing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the reliability of pairwise correlation coefficients as a measure of neuronal synchrony.
- To analyze the computational properties of spike correlation coefficients.
- To determine if commonly used correlation measures accurately reflect neuronal synchrony.
Main Methods:
- Analytical study of pairwise spike correlations.
- Utilized a tractable threshold model for neuronal activity.
- Investigated conditions under which correlation coefficients may not reflect underlying activity.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that pairwise correlation coefficients can vanish under specific circumstances.
- Showed that vanishing correlation coefficients can occur despite the presence of input and pairwise spike cross-correlations.
- Highlighted that popular correlation measures may fail to capture true neuronal synchrony.
Conclusions:
- Pairwise correlation coefficients are not always a reliable indicator of neuronal synchrony.
- The computational properties of these measures suggest they can be misleading.
- Rethinking the use of correlation coefficients for assessing neuronal network synchrony is necessary.
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