, 2010). This timescale is partly related to active dendritic spiking (Losonczy and Magee, 2006) under control of potassium conductance (Nettleton and Spain, 2000; Goldberg et al., 2003). Second, for single-neuron inputs, rate codes are at the mercy of short-term synaptic plasticity. Synaptic depression at excitatory neuron to excitatory neuron synapses predominates (e.g., Thomson, 1997; Thomson and Bannister,

1999; Thomson et al., 2002; Williams and Atkinson, 2007; Figure 3B). The phenomenon is robust and involves both pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms such as sodium channel inactivation in intensely selleck chemical activated axons (e.g., Debanne, 2004), and release probability changes (Tsodyks and Markram, 1997). Depression

of multiple postsynaptic responses from a single neuron is more evident for shorter interspike intervals, thus higher rates of spiking in a presynaptic neuron will have increasingly less of an effect on the postsynaptic neuron as the train progresses (Figure 4B). This phenomenon is not apparent for the first spike in a train though, perhaps in part explaining the observation that the first sensory-induced spike in a rate increase carries most information in vivo (Chase and Young, 2007; Panzeri et al., 2001). Synaptic depression is therefore a seemingly potent limitation on the time-window in which an increase in spike rate may carry information. However, transient, instantaneous increases in spike rates in a population (defined as the number PI3K inhibitors in clinical trials of spikes in the population over a small time epoch) can reliably generate strong postsynaptic signals (Silberberg et al., 2004). On a larger scale, rapid transitions in EEG state have been proposed to flag cortical computation (Fingelkurts, 2010). From the above, it appears that while increases in spike rate, in the absence of an overt temporal code, in many neurons in a population can readily generate assemblies (e.g., Figure 6B) the influence of assembly activity on target and peer neurons is time limited. Influence is maximal

only in the first 5–10 ms of rate increase. However, responses to sensory input outlast discrete stimuli CYTH4 by many 100s of ms (Altmann et al., 1986; Metherate and Cruikshank, 1999) to several seconds during short term memory tasks (Tallon Baudry et al., 1998). These longer responses are often accompanied by a clear signature of temporal coding, such as the gamma rhythm, whose basis in synaptic inhibition serves to time-limit postsynaptic effects of all but precisely timed concurrent inputs (e.g., Burchell et al., 1998). It is possible then to suggest that instantaneous changes in spike rates may dominate the cortical population code immediately on stimulus presentation, but that more persistent, iterative assembly formation via temporal, oscillation coding dominates thereafter.