The formulae-relating slopes, correlation coefficients and variance ratios used to determine stimulus- or...

When recording single neuron discharge in an animal during the performance of a conditioned task, the functional interpretation of any change in neuronal activity after the conditioned stimulus but before the conditioned task is difficult. So far, such changes have been described as either stimulus- or movement-related. One way of classifying these two types of response has been to use the slope and correlation coefficient between the response latency and the behavioural reaction time. We show that this method is poor and propose a more valid approach.