Assessing Connections in Networks of Biological Neurons

Abstract

In this work spike trains of firing times of neurons recorded from various locations in the cat's auditory thalamus are studied. A goal is making inferences concerning connections amongst different regions of the thalamus in both the presence and the absence of a stimulus. Both second-order moment (frequency domain) and full likelihood analyses (a threshold crossing model), are carried through. 1 Introduction The sequence of spikes of a neuron, referred to as a "spike train", may carry important information processed by the brain and thus may underlie cognitive functions and sensory perception [1]. The data studied are recorded stretches of point processes corresponding to the firing times of Statistics Department, University of California, Berkeley y Institute of Physiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Pars dorsalis (D) Pars lateralis (PL) Pars magnocellularis (M) Auditory Cortex RE Input Figure 1: A block diagram of the auditory regions of the cat's brain. neurons mea..