Variability is a ubiquitous aspect of neural recordings. In an influential paper, Churchland et al. (2010) compiled data from many cortical areas to demonstrate that variability generally decreases upon presentation of a stimulus. What are the implications of this finding?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Churchland, M. M. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 13, 369–378 (2010).
Mainen, Z. F. & Sejnowski, T. J. Science 268, 1503–1506 (1995).
Niell, C. M. & Stryker, M. P. Neuron 65, 472–479 (2010).
McGinley, M. J. et al. Neuron 87, 1143–1161 (2015).
Hawrylycz, M. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 7337–7344 (2016).
Musall, S., Kaufman, M.T., Gluf, S. & Churchland, A. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/308288.
Lajoie, G., Lin, K. K. & Shea-Brown, E. Phys. Rev. E 87, 052901 (2013).
Rajan, K., Abbott, L. F. & Sompolinsky, H. Phys. Rev. E 82, 011903 (2010).
White, B., Abbott, L. F. & Fiser, J. J. Neurophysiol. 108, 2383–2392 (2012).
Kenet, T., Bibitchkov, D., Tsodyks, M., Grinvald, A. & Arieli, A. Nature 425, 954–956 (2003).
Berkes, P., Orbán, G., Lengyel, M. & Fiser, J. Science 331, 83–87 (2011).
Carrillo-Reid, L., Miller, J. E., Hamm, J. P., Jackson, J. & Yuste, R. J. Neurosci. 35, 8813–8828 (2015).
Orbán, G., Berkes, P., Fiser, J. & Lengyel, M. Neuron 92, 530–543 (2016).
Deneux, T. et al. Neurophotonics 4, 031222 (2017).
Muller, L., Chavane, F., Reynolds, J. & Sejnowski, T. J. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 19, 255–268 (2018).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fairhall, A.L. Whither variability?. Nat Neurosci 22, 329–330 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0344-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0344-0
- Springer Nature America, Inc.