Temporal coding: Is there evidence for it and what is its function? 


One of the most fundamental issues in neuroscience concerns the exact
nature of neural coding or representation.  The standard view is that
information is represented in the firing rates of single or populations of
neurons.  Recently, a growing body of research has provided evidence for
coding strategies based on more precise temporal relationships among
spikes.  These are some of the questions that the workshop intends to address:

1. What do we mean by temporal coding?  What time resolution constitutes a
temporal code? 
2. What evidence is there for temporal coding in the nervous system.  
3.  What functional role does it play?  What computational problem can it
solve that firing rate cannot?
4.  Is it feasible to implement given the properties of neurons and their
interactions?

We intend to organize it as a debate with formal presentations and informal
discussion with some of the major figures in the field.  Different views
regarding this subject will be presented.  We will invite speakers doing
work in a variety of areas including both vertebrate and invertebrate
systems.  

Nicho Hatsopoulos and Harel Shouval

Brown University 
Departments of  Neuroscience and Physics