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Updated: Jul 12, 2025

Using Neuron Spiking Activity to Trigger Closed-Loop Stimuli in Neurophysiological Experiments
Published on: November 12, 2019
Silences, spikes and bursts: Three-part knot of the neural code
Zachary Friedenberger1,2, Emerson Harkin1, Katalin Tóth1
1Brain and Mind Institute, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
When a neuron breaks silence, it can emit action potentials in a number of patterns. Some responses are so sudden and intense that electrophysiologists felt the need to single them out, labelling action potentials emitted at a particularly high frequency with a metonym - bursts. Is there more to bursts than a figure of speech? After all, sudden bouts of high-frequency firing are expected to occur whenever inputs surge. The burst coding hypothesis advances that the neural code has three syllables: silences, spikes and bursts. We review evidence supporting this ternary code in terms of devoted mechanisms for burst generation, synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity. We also review the learning and attention theories for which such a triad is beneficial.
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