Methods for finding and validating neural spike patterns

Recent experimental and theoretical results have suggested the possibility that cortical neurons may produce only a small number of distinct spiking patterns when stimulated repeatedly by the same signal. Such firing patterns invalidate the assumption that cortical responses are Poisson and suggest the possibility of novel cortical information processing strategies. Unfortunately, methods for extracting and quantifying spike patterns from experimental data are still immature. We present a quantitative definition of spike patterns, a principled procedure for their extraction, and methods for validating and quantifying the presence of spike patterns in neuronal data.