NEURONAL CODES - READING THEM AND LEARNING HOW THEIR STRUCTURE INFLUENCES NETWORK ORGANIZATION

Our investigations of the primate visual system show that neuronal res ponses carry information in a multi-dimensional code that is superimpo sed onto the response envelope in a slow time varying fashion. The pre cision of timing is 30 ms or more. In primary visual cortex response l atency and response strength are largely independent, with latency mor e closely coding contrast or visibility and strength more closely codi ng stimulus orientation, or perhaps shape. Adjacent neurons in both V1 and inferior temporal cortex share only about 10% of their stimulus-r elated information, which we demonstrate to be consistent with the ide a that cortical layers were organized to minimize information loss.