Tutorial FHS Neuro. Information Theory

Tel: lab: (2)72513 college:(2)78889

E-mail jan.schnupp@physiol.ox.ac.uk

Essay Question:

Has Information Theory helped us understand how sensory stimuli are represented in the brain? What are its limitations?

(Hint: it may be useful to start your essay by discussing what “information” (in an information theoretical sense) is, and how it is measured or estimated).

Note: Do not write more than 7 pages! Five well written pages should be enough. I intend to hold these tutorials one-on-one and want to go through your essay with you. It would be great if you could let me have essays in advance, or at least bring them to your tute. My preferred mode of receiving essays is by e-mail attachment, but if you don't word process your essay then you can pidge them either to Physiology or St Peters. I will not make a fuss if your essay is not ready in time but I can’t promise that essays handed in after the tute will be marked promptly. To make the tutorial worth your while though it is essential that you make sure you've done a fair bit of reading before the tutorial, that in doing your reading you make notes of things you don’t understand, and that you bring these notes to the tute.

This is quite a technical subject. It is easy to feel stumped by technical terms or intimidated by mathematical formulae. Try not to let them put you off. Scan over the papers first, skipping any occasional “hieroglyphics” (e.g. unfamiliar mathematical notation) and try to get the gist of it. If needed, I should be able to explain at least some of the unfamiliar notation at the tute, and the web (e.g. www.wikipedia.org) may provide useful background on some of the technical terms.

Reading:

Materials marked with an asterisk (*) are a good place to start.

(Also make sure you work through my little Introduction to Fundamental Concepts of Information Theory, if you haven’t already done so.)

* Schnupp, J.W.H. (2006) Auditory filters, features, and redundant representations. Neuron 51(3):278-80

* Trappenberg, T. P. (2002). "Fundamentals of computational neuroscience," (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

** Rolls, E. T., and Treves, A. (1998). "Neural networks and brain function." (Oxford University Press, Oxford), Chapter 10.4 and Appendix 2.

* Rieke, F. (1997). "Spikes: exploring the neural code," (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.; London).

Eskandar EN, Richmond BJ, and Optican LM. Role of inferior temporal neurons in visual memory. I. Temporal encoding of information about visual images, recalled images, and behavioral context. J Neurophysiol 68: 1277-1295, 1992.

Furukawa, S., and Middlebrooks, J. C. (2002). "Cortical representation of auditory space: information-bearing features of spike patterns," J Neurophysiol 87, 1749-62.

Panzeri S, Petersen RS, Schultz SR, Lebedev M, and Diamond ME. The role of spike timing in the coding of stimulus location in rat somatosensory cortex. Neuron 29: 769-777, 2001.

Schnupp JWH, Hall TD, Kokelaar RF, Ahmed B (2006) Plasticity of temporal pattern codes for vocalization stimuli in auditory cortex J NEUROSCI 26:4785-95