Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Spike-Triggered Average

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

  • 870 Accesses

Synonyms

Reverse correlation; SFC; Spike-field coherence; STA

Definition

The spike-triggered average (STA) is a measure to relate a continuous signal and a simultaneously recorded spike train. It represents the average signal taken at the times of spike occurrences and with proper normalization is equivalent to the cross-correlation between the continuous signal and the spike train.

Detailed Description

The STA is widely used to study the temporal relationship between a spike train and a simultaneously recorded continuous signal, such as the local field potential (Eckhorn et al. 1988; Gray and Singer 1989; Murthy and Fetz 1996; Fries et al. 2001; Okun et al. 2010; Denker et al. 2011), membrane potential (Matsumura et al. 1996; Lampl et al. 1999; Poulet and Petersen 2008), synaptic conductance (under dynamic clamp, Gauck and Jaeger 2000) and electromyogram (McKiernan et al. 1998). Even non-physiological signals, such as electric stimulation to a single neuron (Mainen and Sejnowski 1995)...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Buzsaki G (2006) Rhythms of the brain. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Buzsaki G, Anastassiou CA, Koch C (2012) The origin of extracellular fields and currents – EEG, ECoG, LFP and spikes. Nat Rev Neurosci 13:407–420

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chalk M, Herrero JL, Gieselmann MA, Delicato LS, Gotthardt S, Thiele A (2010) Attention reduces stimulus-driven gamma frequency oscillations and spike field coherence in V1. Neuron 66:114–125

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denker M, Roux S, Lindén H, Diesmann M, Riehle A, Grün S (2011) The local field potential reflects surplus spike synchrony. Cereb Cortex 21:2681–2695

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eckhorn R, Bauer R, Jordan W, Brosch M, Kruse W, Munk M, Reitboeck HJ (1988) Coherent oscillations: a mechanism of feature linking in the visual cortex? Multiple electrode and correlation analyses in the cat. Biol Cybern 60:121–130

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eggermont JJ, Johannesma PM, Aertsen AM (1983) Reverse-correlation methods in auditory research. Q Rev Biophys 16:341–414

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fries P, Reynolds JH, Rorie AE, Desimone R (2001) Modulation of oscillatory neuronal synchronization by selective visual attention. Science 291:1560–1563

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fries P, Schröder J-H, Roelfsema PR, Singer W, Engel AK (2002) Oscillatory neuronal synchronization in primary visual cortex as a correlate of stimulus selection. J Neurosci 22:3739–3754

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gauck V, Jaeger D (2000) The control of rate and timing of spikes in the deep cerebellar nuclei by inhibition. J Neurosci 20:3006–3016

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gray CM, Singer W (1989) Stimulus-specific neuronal oscillations in orientation columns of cat visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 86:1698–1702

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grün S (2009) Data-driven significance estimation for precise spike correlation. J Neurophysiol 101:1126–1140

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lampl I, Reichova I, Ferster D (1999) Synchronous membrane potential fluctuations in neurons of the cat visual cortex. Neuron 22:361–374

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Logothetis NK (2003) The underpinnings of the BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging signal. J Neurosci 23:3963–3971

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Louis S, Borgelt C, Grün S (2010) Generation and selection of surrogate methods for correlation analysis. In: Grün S, Rotter S (eds) Analysis of parallel spike trains, Series in computational neuroscience. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mainen ZF, Sejnowski TJ (1995) Reliability of spike timing in neocortical neurons. Science 268:1503–1506

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura M, Chen D, Sawaguchi T, Kubota K, Fetz EE (1996) Synaptic interactions between primate precentral cortex neurons revealed by spike-triggered averaging of intracellular membrane potentials in vivo. J Neurosci 16:7757–7767

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKiernan BJ, Marcario JK, Karrer JH, Cheney PD (1998) Corticomotoneuronal postspike effects in shoulder, elbow, wrist, digit, and intrinsic hand muscles during a reach and prehension task. J Neurophysiol 80:1961–1980

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mitzdorf U (1985) Current source-density method and application in cat cerebral cortex: investigation of evoked potentials and EEG phenomena. Physiol Rev 65:37–100

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murthy VN, Fetz EE (1996) Synchronization of neurons during local field potential oscillations in sensorimotor cortex of awake monkeys. J Neurophysiol 76:3968–3982

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nunez PL, Srinivasan R (2006) Electric fields of the brain: the neurophysics of EEG. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Okun M, Naim A, Lampl I (2010) The subthreshold relation between cortical local field potential and neuronal firing unveiled by intracellular recordings in awake rats. J Neurosci 30:4440–4448

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran B, Pezaris JS, Sahani M, Mitra PP, Andersen RA (2002) Temporal structure in neuronal activity during working memory in macaque parietal cortex. Nat Neurosci 5:805–811

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran B, Nelson MJ, Andersen RA (2008) Free choice activates a decision circuit between frontal and parietal cortex. Nature 453:406–409

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poulet JFA, Petersen CCH (2008) Internal brain state regulates membrane potential synchrony in barrel cortex of behaving mice. Nature 454:881–885

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ringach D, Shapley R (2004) Reverse correlation in neurophysiology. Cognit Sci 28:147–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Womelsdorf T, Fries P, Mitra PP, Desimone R (2006) Gamma-band synchronization in visual cortex predicts speed of change detection. Nature 439:733–736

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre and JARA, Jülich, Germany

    Junji Ito

Authors
  1. Junji Ito
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Junji Ito .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Ito, J. (2014). Spike-Triggered Average. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_407-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_407-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation