Copy of UK Spike Train Analysis Task Force

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The computation that takes place in networks of brain cells (neurones) is more powerful that man-made computing, novel, and poorly understood. Neurophysiology is the science of extracting this computational data flow from these cell networks, and analysing it in order to understand the features of the information processing that is taking place.Recent advances in data acquisition have allowed neurophysiologists to record from networks of cells, as opposed to single cells, or cell pairs. The data that emanates provides a binary description of the information flow in the network, in the form of a series of single-point data streams that are recorded at spatial intervals.To understand the computational processes that this data describes, it is necessary to develop new mathematical and statistical techniques to correlate phenomena that occur in multiple streams against imposed stimulti, to generate additional insight by inferring something of the structure of the network producing the data, and to integrate discrete mathematical technqiues that address the research challenge (which is essentially to understand a high-paramater analogue process) at very small levels of scale.At present as a result of the difficulty of the problem, and the way in which the community currently works, there is a severe shortfall in robust mathematical techniques that can advance the proposed research challenge for networks of more than a handful of cells.The UK Spike Train Analysis Task Force will reverse this shortfall by providing an offline and online forum that will allow a newly consolidated expert community to develop mathematics in an a collaborative way.