Assessing the Information Content of Individual Spikes in Population-Level Models of Neural Spiking Activity

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Auteurs principaux: Ghahari, Azar, Eden, Uri T.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Ghahari, Azar
Eden, Uri T.
author_facet Ghahari, Azar
Eden, Uri T.
contents In the last decade, there have been major advances in clusterless decoding algorithms for neural data analysis. These algorithms use the theory of marked point processes to describe the joint activity of many neurons simultaneously, without the need for spike sorting. In this study, we examine information-theoretic metrics to analyze the information extracted from each observed spike under such clusterless models. In an analysis of spatial coding in the rat hippocampus, we compared the entropy reduction between spike-sorted and clusterless models for both individual spikes observed in isolation and when the prior information from all previously observed spikes is accounted for. Our analysis demonstrates that low-amplitude spikes, which are difficult to cluster and often left out of spike sorting, provide reduced information compared to sortable, high-amplitude spikes when considered in isolation, but the two provide similar levels of information when considering all the prior information available from past spiking. These findings demonstrate the value of combining information measures with state-space modeling and yield new insights into the underlying mechanisms of neural computation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_06280
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing the Information Content of Individual Spikes in Population-Level Models of Neural Spiking Activity
Ghahari, Azar
Eden, Uri T.
Neurons and Cognition
Quantitative Methods
Methodology
62M10, 60G55, 94A17
In the last decade, there have been major advances in clusterless decoding algorithms for neural data analysis. These algorithms use the theory of marked point processes to describe the joint activity of many neurons simultaneously, without the need for spike sorting. In this study, we examine information-theoretic metrics to analyze the information extracted from each observed spike under such clusterless models. In an analysis of spatial coding in the rat hippocampus, we compared the entropy reduction between spike-sorted and clusterless models for both individual spikes observed in isolation and when the prior information from all previously observed spikes is accounted for. Our analysis demonstrates that low-amplitude spikes, which are difficult to cluster and often left out of spike sorting, provide reduced information compared to sortable, high-amplitude spikes when considered in isolation, but the two provide similar levels of information when considering all the prior information available from past spiking. These findings demonstrate the value of combining information measures with state-space modeling and yield new insights into the underlying mechanisms of neural computation.
title Assessing the Information Content of Individual Spikes in Population-Level Models of Neural Spiking Activity
topic Neurons and Cognition
Quantitative Methods
Methodology
62M10, 60G55, 94A17
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06280