MUTUAL INFORMATION, FISHER INFORMATION, AND POPULATION CODING

In the context of parameter estimation and model selection, it is only quite recently that a direct link between the Fisher information and information-theoretic quantities has been exhibited. We give an interp retation of this link within the standard framework of information the ory. We show that in the context of population coding, the mutual info rmation between the activity of a large array of neurons and a stimulu s to which the neurons are tuned is naturally related to the Fisher in formation. In the light of this result, we consider the optimization o f the tuning curves parameters in the case of neurons responding to a stimulus represented by an angular variable.