Error-Robust Modes of the Retinal Population Code.

TitleError-Robust Modes of the Retinal Population Code.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsPrentice, JS, Marre, O, Ioffe, ML, Loback, AR, Tkačik, G, Berry, MJ
JournalPLoS Comput Biol
Volume12
Issue11
Paginatione1005148
Date Published2016 Nov
ISSN1553-7358
KeywordsAction Potentials, Cells, Cultured, Computer Simulation, Humans, Models, Neurological, Models, Statistical, Nerve Net, Retinal Ganglion Cells, Synaptic Transmission, Vision, Ocular
Abstract

<p>Across the nervous system, certain population spiking patterns are observed far more frequently than others. A hypothesis about this structure is that these collective activity patterns function as population codewords-collective modes-carrying information distinct from that of any single cell. We investigate this phenomenon in recordings of ∼150 retinal ganglion cells, the retina's output. We develop a novel statistical model that decomposes the population response into modes; it predicts the distribution of spiking activity in the ganglion cell population with high accuracy. We found that the modes represent localized features of the visual stimulus that are distinct from the features represented by single neurons. Modes form clusters of activity states that are readily discriminated from one another. When we repeated the same visual stimulus, we found that the same mode was robustly elicited. These results suggest that retinal ganglion cells' collective signaling is endowed with a form of error-correcting code-a principle that may hold in brain areas beyond retina.</p>

DOI10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005148
Alternate JournalPLoS Comput Biol
PubMed ID27855154
PubMed Central IDPMC5113862
Grant ListP 25651 / FWF_ / Austrian Science Fund FWF / Austria
R01 EY014196 / EY / NEI NIH HHS / United States
R56 EY014196 / EY / NEI NIH HHS / United States
T32 MH065214 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States