Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T13:17:42.234Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Neural codes – Necessary but not sufficient for understanding brain function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2019

Simon R. Schultz
Affiliation:
Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, LondonSW7 2AZ, United Kingdom. s.schultz@imperial.ac.ukgiuseppe.gava12@imperial.ac.uk
Giuseppe P. Gava
Affiliation:
Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, LondonSW7 2AZ, United Kingdom. s.schultz@imperial.ac.ukgiuseppe.gava12@imperial.ac.uk

Abstract

Brains are information processing systems whose operational principles ultimately cannot be understood without resource to information theory. We suggest that understanding how external signals are represented in the brain is a necessary step towards employing further engineering tools (such as control theory) to understand the information processing performed by brain circuits during behaviour.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buzsáki, G. (2015) Hippocampal sharp wave-ripple: A cognitive biomarker for episodic memory and planning. Hippocampus, 25(10):1073–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maboudi, K., Ackermann, E., de Jong, L. W., Pfeiffer, B. E., Foster, D., Diba, K. & Kemere, C. (2018) Uncovering temporal structure in hippocampal output patterns. eLife 7:ELife.34467. doi:10.7554/ELife.34467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Panzeri, S. & Schultz, S. R. (2001) A unified approach to the study of temporal, correlational, and rate coding. Neural Computation 13(6):13111349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panzeri, S., Schultz, S. R., Treves, A. & Rolls, E. T. (1999) Correlations and the encoding of information in the nervous system. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 266(1423):1001–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterling, P. & Laughlin, S. (2015) Principles of neural design. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Trouche, S., Perestenko, P. V., Ven, G. M., van de Bratley, C. T., McNamara, C. G., Campo-Urriza, N., Black, S. L., Reijmers, L. G. & Dupret, D. (2016) Recoding a cocaine-place memory engram to a neutral engram in the hippocampus. Nature Neuroscience 19(4):564–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed