Part of Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 9 (NIPS 1996)
Fabrizio Gabbiani, Walter Metzner, Ralf Wessel, Christof Koch
The encoding of random time-varying stimuli in single spike trains of electrosensory neurons in the weakly electric fish Eigenmannia was investigated using methods of statistical signal processing. At the first stage of the electrosensory system, spike trains were found to encode faithfully the detailed time-course of random stimuli, while at the second stage neurons responded specifically to features in the temporal waveform of the stimulus. Therefore stimulus infor(cid:173) mation is processed at the second stage of the electrosensory system by extracting temporal features from the faithfully preserved image of the environment sampled at the first stage.