| |
WORKSHOP ON:
CENTRAL PROBLEMS IN SINGLE CELL COMPUTATION
16-18 September 2002
By invitation only
Venue
B10 Seminar Room, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR
Expanding the range of single-neuron
computation |
L.F. Abbott, Brandeis
University, USA |
The firing rate of a neuron is usually
expressed as a function of the mean current provided by its synaptic inputs. However, the
variance of the total synaptic input also has a significant impact on neuronal firing, and
recent experimental and theoretical results allow us to quantify this effect. Including
the dependence on both the mean and the variance of the synaptic input greatly expands the
range of computations that a neuron can perform on the basis of its firing rate. This work
involves a combination of experimental results on cortical neurons in a slice preparation
receiving dynamic-clamp-generated synaptic input simulating in vivo conditions, and
theoretical work on a variety of neuron models. Single-neuron computations that can arise
through the effects of variance include contrast saturation, shifts in contrast response
curves due to attention, gain modulation similar to that seen in parietal neurons,
intensity-invariant selectivity, and response gating. |
Joint work with Frances Chance and Alex
Reyes |
|