Extracting Dynamical Structure Embedded in Motor Preparatory Activity
At present, the best view of the activity of a neural circuit is provided by multiple-electrode extracellular recording technologies. These technologies are able to simultaneously measure spike trains from up to a few hundred cells in one or more brain areas during each trial. However, characterizing the dynamics of the circuit from such data is made difficult, both by the point-like nature of the spikes and by the variability in the responses to identical repeated trials. By their nature, spikes give us only an occasional view of the process from which they are generated.