Biological Information Technology Systems - BITS: Algorithms for Real-time Decoding and Modulation of Neural Spike Trains

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0129895 -John P. Miller-Montana State University-Algorithms for real-time decoding and modulation of neural spike trains-A grand challenge in neuroscience is to understand the biological basis of information processing in nervous systems. Three major goals facing sensory neuroscientists are a) to understand how sensory information is encoded in the activity patterns of neural ensembles, b) to understand how those activity patterns are decoded by cells at the subsequent processing stages, and c) to understand how computations (e.g. visual pattern recognition or oriented motor responses) are carried out on that decoded information. Two major goals of the research proposed here are a) to develop a formal, general approach toward achieving those goals, and b) to test and refine that approach by characterizing the functional organization and neural encoding scheme of a simple sensory system. These goals will be achieved through the development of a data-driven model of the system. The model will be formulated in terms of information processing units and information channels, rather than in terms of individual neurons. That is, the functional units in the model will be operators that carry out specific, independent computations (or information transformation operations) at a specific processing stage in the test nervous system, and the channels through which information is passed between these functional units will correspond to information channels in the Shannon sense.