Response Variability and Timing Precision of Neuronal Spike Trains In Vivo. Daniel S. Reich, Jonathan D. Victor, Bruce W. Knight, Tsuyoshi Ozaki and Ehud Kaplan. Laboratory of Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
APStracts 4:0017N, 1997.
ABSTRACT
We report that neuronal spike trains can exhibit high, stimulus-dependent temporal precision even while the trial-to-trial response variability, measured in several traditional ways, remains substantially independent of the stimulus. We show that retinal ganglion cells and neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of cats in vivo display both of these aspects of firing behavior, which have previously been reported to be contradictory. We develop a simple model which treats neurons as "leaky" integrate-and-fire devices and show that it, too, can exhibit both behaviors. We consider the implications of our findings for the problem of neural coding. 

Received 7 October 1996; accepted in final form 7 January 1997.
APS Manuscript Number J.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 24 January 1997