Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Noisy neurons can certainly compute

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 1349–1350 (2006)Cite this article

How do neurons combine separate pieces of information that are only partially reliable? Surprisingly, their noise properties may simplify the underlying computations while allowing them to maintain optimal performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Optimal pooling of unreliable signals is simplified by Poisson noise.

References

  1. Ma, W.J., Beck, J.M., Latham, P.E. & Pouget, A. Nat. Neurosci. 9, 1432–1438 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ernst, M.O. & Banks, M.S. Nature 415, 429–433 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kording, K.P. & Wolpert, D.M. Nature 427, 244–247 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Miyazaki, M., Yamamoto, S., Uchida, S. & Kitazawa, S. Nat. Neurosci. 9, 875–877 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Dean, A. Exp. Brain Res. 44, 437–440 (1981).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Holt, G.R., Softky, W.R., Koch, C. & Douglas, R.J. J. Neurophysiol. 75, 1806–1814 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Compte, A. et al. J. Neurophysiol. 90, 3441–3454 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Van Vreeswijk, C. & Sompolinsky, H. Science 274, 1724–1726 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Basalyga, G. & Salinas, E. Neural Comput. 18, 1349–1379 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Softky, W.R. & Koch, C. J. Neurosci. 13, 334–350 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Shadlen, M.N. & Newsome, W.T. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 4, 569–579 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Stevens, C.F. & Zador, A.M. Nat Neurosci. 1, 210–217 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zemel, R.S., Dayan, P. & Pouget, A. Neural Comput. 10, 403–430 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Jazayeri, M. & Movshon, J.A. Nat. Neurosci. 9, 690–696 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, 27157-1010, North Carolina, USA

    Emilio Salinas

Authors
  1. Emilio Salinas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Salinas, E. Noisy neurons can certainly compute. Nat Neurosci 9, 1349–1350 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1106-1349

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1106-1349

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing