Today we're going to talk about a very

important concept in neuroscience.

The concept of representation.
We've actually been talking about
representations all along,
but today we're going to make it more
explicit.
And I'm going to consider the concept of
representations and draw upon a variety of
examples.
A representation is something that stands
for something else.
We use representations all the time.
So, for example, this arbitrary symbol
here
consisting of a horizontal line, a
vertical
line, and then a circular line conveys to
us a meaning, the number of items.
The arbitrary nature of this relationship
is captured by the fact that
we actually have many different possible
ways to convey that same meaning.
For example, we can write the word five.
F-I-V-E, or we can pronounce those sounds.
All three of these methods are arbitrary
symbols conveying the same meaning.
Representations are used not just in human
language,
but also in electronics and other
technological systems.
And I'm going to develop this analogy in a
bit of specific detail, because I
think it provides insight into the
challenges faced
by the brain in representing and
transforming information.
Many electronic devices use a type of code
called digital coding.
In a digital code, these symbols that
we're talking
about involve a series of zeros and ones
that
are used to convey the presence of
components of
that number in the form of powers of two.
Which bits in this code are on, indicate
which powers of two should be combined.
So for example, if you have a zero,
a zero, three ones and then three more
zeros.
What that means is we can ignore these
zeros and just consider the ones.
Based on it's position in the number.
That corresponds to two to the fifth.
This corresponds to two to the fourth.
And this corresponds to two to the third.
These numbers can be evaluated and added
together to produce the total of 56.
So that this symbol corresponds to this
meaning.
In neural representations, the symbol
consists of a neural activity pattern.
And the meaning can involve either a
sensory stimulus, which has caused that
activity pattern, or a desired movement,
which is controlled by that activity
pattern.
So we can ask, in what ways does neural
activity stand for information, and in
particular, spatial information?
Well, you've already seen one example kind
of representation.
And that is the brain map, which we see
in the visual system and in the
somatosensory system.
And in a brain map, you can think of this
as being like the brain's version of a
digital code.
If you plot neuron activity as a function
of neuron identity or position on the
retina, the
zeros correspond to neurons that might not
have
anything in their receptive field right at
the moment.
The ones correspond to neurons that do
have
something in their receptive field and are
therefore active.
Of course, neurons are different from
logic
gates in that they don't have simply on
and off patterns, but rather exhibit
grated firing
rates, so really it's more something like
this.
If you plot the number of spikes.
First is the location of a stimulus.
An individual neuron might have a response
pattern that
looks something like this, graded activity
that reaches a peak
for a particular location at the center of
the
receptive field, and lower activity for
locations on either side.
Different neurons have different receptive
field locations, so
that taken together, these neurons can
form a map.
Well, why do representations matter?
Representations matter, because these
codes have to
be read and interpreted to produce
behavioral responses.
So, when we think about these neural
activity patterns.
Remember that the brain doesn't know about
the sensory stimulus.
It only knows about the neural activity
pattern.
It has to figure out how to infer what
that sensory stimulus was based on that
activity pattern.
When neurons form a map, it's critical to
use the activity of more
than one neuron to try to figure out where
the stimulus is located.
And the reason is that the activity of any
individual neuron is ambiguous.
If this neuron is firing at this firing
rate,
you could be pretty sure the stimulus is
here.
But if it is firing at one of these firing
rates, you
can't tell the difference between whether
a stimulus is located here, or here.
So these maps have to be read.
And the activity of groups of neurons has
to be evaluated in combination.
That's what we were talking about when we
talked about how the map for visual
stimulus
velocity in area mt is converted into a
command to generate a smooth pursuit eye
movement.
So if a particular neuron is firing at
that firing rate.
And another neuron is firing at that
firing rate.
Together, you can see that the most likely
explanation is for a stimulus at
that location, and adding a third neuron,
might just provide the icing on the cake.
Overall, it is the identity of the active
neurons that is signaling the location of
the stimulus.
The central elements of a map are really
very simple.
Individual neurons show peaked tuning
functions,
and there are many of these neurons.
If you have those two factors, then what
you have is a
situation in which all locations can be
represented in a point-to-point fashion.
But it turns out that that's not the
only way that the brain can represent
information.
There's an alternative,
called the brain meter,
that I'll tell you about
in the next video.
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