Correlated neuronal discharge rate and its implications for psychophysical performance
Abstract
Single neurons can signal subtle changes in the sensory environment with surprising fidelity, often matching the perceptual sensitivity of trained psychophysical observers. This similarity poses an intriguing puzzle: why is psychophysical sensitivity not greater than that of single neurons? Pooling responses across neurons should average out noise in the activity of single cells, leading to substantially improved psychophysical performance. If, however, noise is correlated among these neurons, the beneficial effects of pooling would be diminished. To assess correlation within a pool, the responses of pairs of neurons were recorded simultaneously during repeated stimulus presentations. We report here that the observed covariation in spike count was relatively weak, the correlation coefficient averaging 0.12. A theoretical analysis revealed, however, that weak correlation can limit substantially the signalling capacity of the pool. In addition, theory suggests a relationship between neuronal responses and psychophysical decisions which may prove useful for identifying cell populations underlying specific perceptual capacities.
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The influence of a single neuron on the probability of a post-decision wager is expected to be small because it is one member of a large population of neurons that govern behavior.
“The influence of a single neuron on the probability of a post-decision wager is expected to be small because it is but one member of a large population of neurons that govern the behavior, presumably (33–35).”
From Representation of Confidence Associated with a Decision by Neurons in the Parietal Cortex (2009) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- Zohary, E., Shadlen, M. N., & Newsome, W. T.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 1994-07
- Volume
- 370
- Issue
- 6485
- Pages
- 140-143
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2004478098
- Cited by
- 1,237
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 45 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 62 · 2013: 69 · 2012: 60
- FWCI
- 5.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (1994-09-22)
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Keywords
- neuronal discharge rate, spike count correlations, sensory coding, neural noise, signal detection, perceptual decision making, single neuron responses, population coding
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Discrimination, Psychological, Fixation, Ocular, Macaca mulatta, Mathematics, Neurons, Afferent, Psychomotor Performance, Temporal Lobe, Visual Pathways, Visual Perception
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