Optimal firing rate estimation

Paulin, M. G.; Hoffman, L. F.

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NASA NTRS · 20040088706

Optimal firing rate estimation

Paulin, M. G.·Hoffman, L. F.

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Abstract

We define a measure for evaluating the quality of a predictive model of the behavior of a spiking neuron. This measure, information gain per spike (Is), indicates how much more information is provided by the model than if the prediction were made by specifying the neuron's average firing rate over the same time period. We apply a maximum Is criterion to optimize the performance of Gaussian smoothing filters for estimating neural firing rates. With data from bullfrog vestibular semicircular canal neurons and data from simulated integrate-and-fire neurons, the optimal bandwidth for firing rate estimation is typically similar to the average firing rate. Precise timing and average rate models are limiting cases that perform poorly. We estimate that bullfrog semicircular canal sensory neurons transmit in the order of 1 bit of stimulus-related information per spike.

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NASA Discipline Neuroscience Review Review, Tutorial Non-NASA Center Signal Transduction/physiology Vestibular Nerve/physiology Vestibule/physiology Rana catesbeiana/anatomy & histology/physiology Action Potentials/physiology Models, Neurological Neurons, Afferent/physiology Normal Distribution Animals

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Paulin, M. G., Hoffman, L. F.. 2001-07-01. Optimal firing rate estimation. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20040088706

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