Uniform cross-neuron firing rate distinguishes true entracking from mere low rate

Evidence

One may wonder what distinguishes the low firing rate of an entracking neuron to a low frequency component vs. the low firing rate to a component above the entracking limit. The key would again be in the uniform firing rate, with low variability, across neurons in the case of a low frequency component. Above the entracking limit, firing rate is no longer clamped to the value dictated by the dominant ISI of a neuron’s inputs and will vary across neurons. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4494

For a given stimulus and time window, a neuron can only have one firing rate. One may wonder what distinguishes the low firing rate of an entracking neuron to a low frequency component vs. the low firing rate to a component above the entracking limit. The key would again be in the uniform firing rate, with low variability, across neurons in the case of a low frequency component. Above the entracking limit, firing rate is no longer clamped to the value dictated by the dominant ISI of a neuron’s inputs and will vary across neurons. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4522

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the operational test for distinguishing an entracking code from an ordinary low-rate response: uniformity across the population.
• QUESTION: The claimed distinguishing criterion — low cross-neuron firing-rate variability during entracking — is presented as a hypothesis (‘would again be’); worth chasing whether this has been empirically tested.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4494; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4522