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Cited by 255Neural dynamics and brain functionNeuroscience and Neural EngineeringUndergraduate Neuroscience Education and Research

Accurate Estimation of Neural Population Dynamics without Spike Sorting

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Trautmann, Eric M., Stavisky, Sergey D., Lahiri, Subhaneil, Ames, Katherine C., Kaufman, Matthew T., O’Shea, Daniel J., Vyas, Saurabh, Sun, Xulu +3 more·2019·Neuron
DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.003PMC PMC7002296

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Abstract

A central goal of systems neuroscience is to relate an organism's neural activity to behavior. Neural population analyses often reduce the data dimensionality to focus on relevant activity patterns. A major hurdle to data analysis is spike sorting, and this problem is growing as the number of recorded neurons increases. Here, we investigate whether spike sorting is necessary to estimate neural population dynamics. The theory of random projections suggests that we can accurately estimate the geometry of low-dimensional manifolds from a small number of linear projections of the data. We recorded data using Neuropixels probes in motor cortex of nonhuman primates and reanalyzed data from three previous studies and found that neural dynamics and scientific conclusions are quite similar using multiunit threshold crossings rather than sorted neurons. This finding unlocks existing data for new analyses and informs the design and use of new electrode arrays for laboratory and clinical use.

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  • Threshold crossing rates and spike band power are estimates of local spiking activity and have been shown to be comparable to sorted single unit activity in terms of decoding performance and neural population structure.

    “Threshold crossing rates and spike band power are estimates of local spiking activity and have been shown to be comparable to sorted single unit activity in terms of decoding performance and neural population structure79–81.”

    From Inner speech in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprostheses (2025) · cites this paper as [79]

    The Results (Study 2) show that threshold crossings preserved neural population structure relative to sorted units, and the Results (Building intuition through a toy example) report high decoding accuracy from multi-unit channels. The paper does not establish a decoding-performance comparison with sorted units or test spike-band power; the Discussion (Implications for neural sensor design) calls analogous analyses of high-gamma features a question for future work. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Trautmann, E. M., Stavisky, S. D., Lahiri, S., Ames, K. C., Kaufman, M. T., O’Shea, D. J., Vyas, S., Sun, X., Ryu, S. I., Ganguli, S., & Shenoy, K. V.
Affiliations
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Columbia University (US)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • Palo Alto Medical Foundation (US)
Corresponding author
Trautmann, Eric M.
ORCID
Venue
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-07
Volume
103
Issue
2
Pages
292-308.e4
ISSN
0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.003
PMC
PMC7002296
OpenAlex
W2949218890
Cited by
255
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 4
FWCI
18.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Neuron (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Undergraduate Neuroscience Education and Research
Keywords
neural population dynamics, spike sorting, random projections, motor cortex, Neuropixels, non-human primates, electrode array design
MeSH terms
Action Potentials, Algorithms, Animals, Computer Simulation, Macaca mulatta, Male, Models, Neurological, Motor Cortex, Neurons, Nonlinear Dynamics

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