NEURAL CODING OF VISUAL STIMULI

我们记录了初级视皮层单个神经元的活动， 皮层（视觉处理的第一皮层阶段）和下皮层 颞叶皮层（最后一个皮层阶段），以研究其机制 潜在的视觉感知。 当分析这些反应时， 它们所包含的信息，我们发现， 可以表示为几个（3-6）同时的总和， 独立的活动模式。 这些活动模式是 作为一个时间代码进行分析，发现这个代码包含更多 信息比由响应强度传达的，通常的 神经元反应的量度。 将神经元概念化为 几种独立的活动模式使我们能够使用 通过一组视觉模式来预测 其他模式。 我们还发现下颞叶神经元 大脑皮层记录的数据， 样本匹配任务携带刺激特异性信息 区分模式刺激，并反映是否给定 刺激是样本、匹配或不匹配。 的变化 对于一些刺激的跨条件的神经元响应可以用于 预测神经元对其他刺激的反应变化， 同等条件 下颞神经元也携带信息 关于正在搜索的刺激（即样本），当 刺激是匹配或不匹配。 使用不同的模型， 能够展示人们对刺激物的反应 由对前一刺激的反应所改变。 的每个成员 神经元对记录从同时与单个电极在 给定的皮层视觉区域是独立于另一个的，即，他们的 信息补充。 这表明，本地处理进行 通过增加对所观察到的刺激的独立分析。

We recorded the activity of single neurons in the primary visual cortex (the first cortical stage of visual processing) and inferior temporal cortex (the last cortical stage), to study the mechanisms underlying visual perception. When the responses were analyzed for the information they contained, we found that the response patterns could be represented as the sum of several (3-6) simultaneous, independent patterns of activity. These activity patterns were analyzed as a temporal code, and this code was found to contain more information than that conveyed by the response strength, the usual measure of neuronal response. Conceptualizing the neuron as having several independent activity patterns allowed us to use the responses elicited by one set of visual patterns to predict those elicited by other patterns. We also found that neurons in inferior temporal cortex recorded from while monkeys perform a delayed matching-to-sample task carry stimulus-specific information differentiating the pattern stimuli, and reflecting whether a given stimulus is the sample, the match, or the nonmatch. The change in the neuronal response across conditions for a few stimuli could be used to predict the change in neuronal response to other stimuli across those same conditions. Inferior temporal neurons also carry information about the stimulus being searched for (i.e. the sample) when the stimulus is either the match or nonmatch. Using a different model we were able to show how the responses to the stimulus being viewed were modified by the responses to the preceding stimulus. Each member of a neuronal pair recorded from simultaneously with a single electrode in a given cortical visual area is independent of the other, i.e., their information adds. This suggests that local processing is carried out by adding independent analyses of the stimulus being viewed.