An Information Theoretic Approach to the Study of Auditory Coding
Gal Chechik · 2003
This dissertation develops information theoretic tools to study properties of the neural code used by the auditory system, and applies them to electro-physiological recordings in three auditory processing stations: auditory cortex (AI), thalamus (MGB) and inferior colliculus (IC). It focuses on several aspects of the neural code: First, robust estimation of the information carried by spike trains is developed, using a variety of dimensionality reduction techniques Secondly, measures of informational redundancy in small groups of neurons are developed. These are applied to neural activity in a series of brain regions, demonstrating a process of redundancy reduction in the ascending processing pathway. Finally, a method to identify relevant features, by filtering out the effects of lower processing stations is developed. This approach is shown to have numerous applications in domains extending far beyond neural coding. These three components are summarized below. The problem of the