Information and Statistical Structure in Spike Trains

How can we calculate what we really want to know?

NIPS 2000 Workshop
December 1 and 2
Breckenridge, Colorado

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Description

How neurons represent and manipulate information in their spike trains is one of the major fundamental problems in neuroscience. Moreover, advances towards its solution will rely on a combination of appropriate theoretical, computational, and experimental strategies.

A meaningful and reliable calculation of information and and other descriptors of functional relationships is at the basis of understanding neural information processing. The accuracy and precision of empirical estimates of these quantities depend strongly on the amount and quality of the data available, and on the assumptions that are made in order to apply a formalism to a laboratory data set. These assumptions typically relate to the neural transduction itself (e.g., linearity or stationarity) and to the statistics of the spike trains (e.g., correlation structure). Thus there are now numerous approaches to the estimation of information-theoretic quantities from spike trains. There are also some major differences in findings across preparations, and it is unclear to what extent these differences represent fundamental biological differences, differences in what is being measured, or methodological biases.

The workshop has several aims:

• By presenting currently available methods in a tutorial-like fashion, we hope to lower the energy barrier to experimentalists who are interested in using information-theoretic and related approaches, but have not yet done so. The presentation of current methods is to be done in a manner that emphasizes the theoretical underpinnings of different strategies and the assumptions and tradeoffs that they make.
• By provide a forum for open discussion among current practitioners, we hope to make progress towards understanding the relationships of the available techniques, guidelines for their application, and the basis of the differences in findings across preparations.
• By presenting the (not fully satisfactory) state of the art to an audience that includes theorists, we hope to spur progress towards the development of better techniques, with a particular emphasis on exploiting more refined hypotheses for spike train structure, and developing techniques that are applicable to multi-unit recordings.

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Submission

Logistics

This workshop session follows the regular NIPS meeting in downtown Denver. Individuals attending both the NIPS workshops in Breckenridge and the Denver meeting can take a shuttle van between Denver and Breckenridge, at a cost of $20. Individuals attending only the workshops should arrange a shuttle van from the Denver Airport $42 (conference rate, one way) using Resort Express (1 800 334 7433). [The NIPS website says $38., but Resort Express insists that this is last year's rate. See what you can negotiate.] The trip takes about 2 to 2.5 hours, depending on traffic and weather. The trip to Breckenridge should be scheduled at least one week in advance; the return trip should be scheduled 48 hours in advance.

Workshop registration costs $170 before November 1, and $210 after ($75 and $125, respectively for students). Two breakfasts, the Banquet dinner, two receptions with appetizers, and coffee/soda during workshop breaks are included in the registration. Contact NIPS for registration materials.

The NIPS rates for rooms are $97 (hotel rooms), $108 (deluxe studios), and $145 (one bedroom condos) at Beaver Run, and $98 at Great Divide Lodge. The same rate applies for single and double occupancy. Local taxes are not included in these rates. Reservations should be made before October 31 at Beaver Run, and before November 9 at Great Divide. At this point I do not know which facility will hold the workshop, but they are close to each other so you can stay at either one. Most prefer the accommodations at Beaver Run.

See the the NIPS site for more details on accommodations.

Also please be aware that Breckenridge is 9500 feet above sea level. You may want to read some information about altitude sickness.

More meeting information: Logistics, local arrangements

top description participants and abstracts submission logistics contacts
schedule

Contacts

NIPS 2000 Meeting Information
General meeting information
More meeting information: Logistics, local arrangements
Workshop information
Accommodations
Altitude sickness
top description participants and abstracts submission logistics contacts