Variability and Randomness of the Instantaneous Firing Rate

作     者：Tomar, Rimjhim Kostal, Lubomir 

作者机构：Czech Acad Sci Inst Physiol Dept Computat Neurosci Prague Czech Republic Charles Univ Prague Med Fac 2 Prague Czech Republic 

出 版 物：《FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE》 (Front. Comput. Neurosci.)

年 卷 期：2021年第15卷

页      面：620410页

核心收录：

基　　金：Czech Science Foundation [20-10251S] 

主　　题：variability randomness firing rate entropy rate coding neural coding temporal coding instantaneous firing rate 

摘      要：The apparent stochastic nature of neuronal activity significantly affects the reliability of neuronal coding. To quantify the encountered fluctuations, both in neural data and simulations, the notions of variability and randomness of inter-spike intervals have been proposed and studied. In this article we focus on the concept of the instantaneous firing rate, which is also based on the spike timing. We use several classical statistical models of neuronal activity and we study the corresponding probability distributions of the instantaneous firing rate. To characterize the firing rate variability and randomness under different spiking regimes, we use different indices of statistical dispersion. We find that the relationship between the variability of interspike intervals and the instantaneous firing rate is not straightforward in general. Counter-intuitively, an increase in the randomness (based on entropy) of spike times may either decrease or increase the randomness of instantaneous firing rate, in dependence on the neuronal firing model. Finally, we apply our methods to experimental data, establishing that instantaneous rate analysis can indeed provide additional information about the spiking activity.