Cited by 475Neural dynamics and brain functionNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Researchstochastic dynamics and bifurcation

Efficient codes and balanced networks

Denève, Sophie, Machens, Christian K·2016·Nature Neuroscience

Abstract

Recent years have seen a growing interest in inhibitory interneurons and their circuits. A striking property of cortical inhibition is how tightly it balances excitation. Inhibitory currents not only match excitatory currents on average, but track them on a millisecond time scale, whether they are caused by external stimuli or spontaneous fluctuations. We review, together with experimental evidence, recent theoretical approaches that investigate the advantages of such tight balance for coding and computation. These studies suggest a possible revision of the dominant view that neurons represent information with firing rates corrupted by Poisson noise. Instead, tight excitatory/inhibitory balance may be a signature of a highly cooperative code, orders of magnitude more precise than a Poisson rate code. Moreover, tight balance may provide a template that allows cortical neurons to construct high-dimensional population codes and learn complex functions of their inputs.

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Crossref · 10.1038/nn.4243

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Authors
Denève, S., & Machens, C. K.
Affiliations
  • École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR)
  • Champalimaud Foundation (PT)
Corresponding author
  • Denève, Sophie
  • Machens, Christian K
Venue
Nature Neuroscience
Published
2016-02-23
Volume
19
Issue
3
Pages
375-382
ISSN
  • 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1726
OpenAlex
W2276533724
Cited by
471
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 16
FWCI
5.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-LABX-0087)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
Keywords
cortical inhibition, excitation-inhibition balance, inhibitory interneurons, spike train variability, population coding, shot noise, cortical networks
MeSH terms
Animals, Cerebral Cortex, Models, Neurological, Neural Inhibition, Neurons, Poisson Distribution

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