The effect of neural adaptation on population coding accuracy

  • Authors:

  • Jesus M. Cortes;Daniele Marinazzo;Peggy Series;Mike W. Oram;Terry J. Sejnowski;Mark C. Rossum

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK and Departamento de Ciencias de la Computacion e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad d ...;Laboratoire de Neurophysique et Physiologie, CNRS UMR 8119, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France;Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK;Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Salk Institute, San Diego, USA 92037 and Division of Biological Science, University of California, San Diego, USA 92093;Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Neuroscience
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Most neurons in the primary visual cortex initially respond vigorously when a preferred stimulus is presented, but adapt as stimulation continues. The functional consequences of adaptation are unclear. Typically a reduction of firing rate would reduce single neuron accuracy as less spikes are available for decoding, but it has been suggested that on the population level, adaptation increases coding accuracy. This question requires careful analysis as adaptation not only changes the firing rates of neurons, but also the neural variability and correlations between neurons, which affect coding accuracy as well. We calculate the coding accuracy using a computational model that implements two forms of adaptation: spike frequency adaptation and synaptic adaptation in the form of short-term synaptic plasticity. We find that the net effect of adaptation is subtle and heterogeneous. Depending on adaptation mechanism and test stimulus, adaptation can either increase or decrease coding accuracy. We discuss the neurophysiological and psychophysical implications of the findings and relate it to published experimental data.