Spike-triggered average

Spike-triggered average

Spike-triggered average (pronunciation: /spaɪk 'trɪgərd 'ævərɪdʒ/) is a method used in neuroscience to characterize the response properties of neurons. It is often used to determine the receptive field of a neuron.

Etymology

The term "spike-triggered average" is derived from the process it describes. A "spike" refers to the action potential or firing of a neuron, "triggered" implies that this firing initiates the process, and "average" refers to the mathematical operation used to analyze the neuron's response.

Definition

The spike-triggered average is calculated by averaging the stimuli that precede each spike in a neuron's response. This method is particularly useful for analyzing the responses of neurons to random or complex stimuli. The resulting average provides a linear approximation of the neuron's response properties.

Procedure

To calculate the spike-triggered average, the following steps are typically followed:

1. Record the neuron's response to a stimulus.
2. Identify the times at which the neuron fires an action potential (a "spike").
3. For each spike, take a window of the stimulus that preceded it.
4. Average these windows together.

This procedure results in a time-reversed version of the neuron's impulse response.

Related Terms

• Action potential
• Neuron
• Receptive field
• Impulse response
• Neuroscience

See Also

• Spike-triggered covariance
• Spike sorting
• Neural coding

External links

• Medical encyclopedia article on Spike-triggered average
• Wikipedia's article - Spike-triggered average

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