Neuronal codes: reading them and learning how their structure influences network organization

Our investigations of the primate visual system show that neuronal responses carry information in a multi-dimensional code that is superimposed onto the response envelope in a slow time varying fashion. The precision of timing is 30 ms or more. In primary visual cortex response latency and response strength are largely independent, with latency more closely coding contrast or visibility and strength more closely coding stimulus orientation, or perhaps shape. Adjacent neurons in both V1 and inferior temporal cortex share only about 10% of their stimulus-related information, which we demonstrate to be consistent with the idea that cortical layers were organized to minimize information loss.