Effect of correlations on signal transmission in a population of spiking neurons

Biological neurons are noisy. Nevertheless, they are able to transfer infor mation in a very reliable manner. We address the problem of signal transmis sion reliability using a network of stochastic neurons of the integrate-and -fire type. We have derived an analytical expression of the noise power and the signal-to-noise ratio as a function of different network parameters. I f firing times of different neurons are anticorrelated, signal transmission can be improved over a broad frequency range beyond the single-neuron firi ng rate. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.