Background Neural field models, such as [1,2] are continuum limits of large-scale neural networks. Typically, their dynamic variables describe either mean voltage [2] or mean firing rate [1,3] of a population element of neural tissue (see [4,5] for recent reviews). The present article considers the paradigmatic Amari equation [2] describing the spatiotemporal dynamics of mean potential V (x, t)...

We propose a novel formulation of the firing squad synchronization problem. In this formulation we may use more than one general state and the general state to be used is determined by the boundary condition of the general. We show that the usual formulation and the new formulation yield different minimum firing times for some variations of the problem. Our results suggest that the new formulat...

In 16 decerebrated unanesthetized cats, we studied effects of neural inputs from upper airway on firing of 62 mesencephalic neurons that also developed respiratory-associated (RA) rhythmic firing when respiratory drive was high [Z. Chen, F. L. Eldridge, and P.G. Wagner. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 437: 305-325, 1991] and on firing of 16 neurons that did not develop the rhythmic firing (non-RA neurons)....

Synchronized firing among neurons has been proposed to constitute an elementary aspect of the neural code in sensory and motor systems. However, it remains unclear how synchronized firing affects the large-scale patterns of activity and redundancy of visual signals in a complete population of neurons. We recorded simultaneously from hundreds of retinal ganglion cells in primate retina, and exam...

Attention causes a multiplicative effect on firing rates of cortical neurons without affecting their selectivity (Motter, 1993; McAdams & Maunsell, 1999a) or the relationship between the spike count mean and variance (McAdams & Maunsell, 1999b). We analyzed attentional modulation of the firing rates of 144 neurons in the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) of two monkeys trained to switch thei...

A central question in neuroscience is to understand how noisy firing patterns are used to transmit information. Because neural spiking is noisy, spiking patterns are often quantified via pairwise correlations, or the probability that two cells will spike coincidentally, above and beyond their baseline firing rate. One observation frequently made in experiments, is that correlations can increase...

Introduction: Purkinje Cell (PC) output displays a complex firing pattern consisting of high frequency sodium spikes and low frequency calcium spikes, and disruption in this firing behavior may contribute to cerebellar ataxia. Riluzole, neuroprotective agent, has been demonstrated to have neuroprotective effects in cerebellar ataxia. Here, the spectral analysis of PCs firing in control, 3-acety...

....................................................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Artificial neural networks ................................................................................................

This paper discusses Neuroprosthetic applications for potential use by paralyzed patients or amputees. These systems require advanced processing of neural signals to drive the prosthetic devices using decoding algorithms. The possibility of predicting motor commands from neural signals are the core of neural prosthetic devices and along this line we show how it is possible to predict movement i...