Spike-Triggered Descent
Abstract
The characterization of neural responses to sensory stimuli is a central problem in neuroscience. Spike-triggered average (STA), an influential technique, has been used to extract optimal linear kernels in a variety of animal subjects. However, when the model assumptions are not met, it can lead to misleading and imprecise results. We introduce a technique, called spike-triggered descent (STD), which can be used alone or in conjunction with STA to increase precision and yield success in scenarios where STA fails. STD works by simulating a model neuron that learns to reproduce the observed spike train. Learning is achieved via parameter optimization that relies on a metric induced on the space of spike trains modeled as a novel inner product space. This technique can precisely learn higher order kernels using limited data. Kernels extracted from a Locusta migratoria tympanal nerve dataset demonstrate the strength of this approach.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.05572,
title = {Spike-Triggered Descent},
author = {Michael Kummer and Arunava Banerjee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.05572},
year = {2020}
}