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

EIA-0129895 -John P. Miller-Montana State University-Algorithms for real-time decoding and modulation of neural spike trains-神经科学中的一个重大挑战是了解神经系统中信息处理的生物学基础。 感觉神经科学家面临的三个主要目标是：a）理解感觉信息是如何编码在神经集合的活动模式中的; B）理解这些活动模式是如何在随后的处理阶段被细胞解码的;以及c）理解如何对解码的信息进行计算（例如视觉模式识别或定向运动反应）。 本研究的两个主要目标是：a）开发一种正式的、通用的方法来实现这些目标; B）通过表征简单感觉系统的功能组织和神经编码方案来测试和改进这种方法。 这些目标将通过开发该系统的数据驱动模式来实现。 该模型将根据信息处理单元和信息通道来制定，而不是根据单个神经元来制定。 也就是说，模型中的功能单元将是在测试神经系统的特定处理阶段执行特定的独立计算（或信息转换操作）的运算符，并且这些功能单元之间传递信息的通道将对应于香农意义上的信息通道。

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.