Spike train analysis toolkit: enabling wider application of information-theoretic techniques to neurophysiology.

Conventional methods widely available for the analysis of spike trains and related neural data include various time- and frequency-domain analyses, such as peri-event and interspike interval histograms, spectral measures, and probability distributions. Information theoretic methods are increasingly recognized as significant tools for the analysis of spike train data. However, developing robust implementations of these methods can be time-consuming, and determining applicability to neural recordings can require expertise.

Terminology for neuroscience data discovery: multi-tree syntax and investigator-derived semantics.

The Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF), developed for the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research and available at http://nif.nih.gov and http://neurogateway.

The neuroscience information framework: a data and knowledge environment for neuroscience.

With support from the Institutes and Centers forming the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, we have designed and implemented a new initiative for integrating access to and use of Web-based neuroscience resources: the Neuroscience Information Framework. The Framework arises from the expressed need of the neuroscience community for neuroinformatic tools and resources to aid scientific inquiry, builds upon prior development of neuroinformatics by the Human Brain Project and others, and directly derives from the Society for Neuroscience's Neuroscience Database Gateway. Partnered with the Society, its Neuroinformatics Committee, and volunteer consultant-collaborators, our multi-site consortium has developed: (1) a comprehensive, dynamic, inventory of Web-accessible neuroscience resources, (2) an extended and integrated terminology describing resources and contents, and (3) a framework accepting and aiding concept-based queries.

Distortion of neural signals by spike coding.

Analog neural signals must be converted into spike trains for transmission over electrically leaky axons. This spike encoding and subsequent decoding leads to distortion. We quantify this distortion by deriving approximate expressions for the mean square error between the inputs and outputs of a spiking link.

Dynamic programming algorithms for comparing multineuronal spike trains via cost-based metrics and alignments.

Cost-based metrics formalize notions of distance, or dissimilarity, between two spike trains, and are applicable to single- and multineuronal responses. As such, these metrics have been used to characterize neural variability and neural coding. By examining the structure of an efficient algorithm [Aronov D, 2003.