Analyzing spike trains with circular statistics

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In neuroscience, specifically electrophysiology, it is common to replace a measured sequence of action potentials or spike trains with delta functions prior to analysis. We apply a method called circular statistics to a time series of delta functions and show that the method is equivalent to the power spectrum. This technique allows us to easily visualize the idea of the power spectrum of spike trains and easily reveals oscillatory and stochastic behavior. We provide several illustrations of the method and an example suitable for students, and suggest that the method might be useful for courses in introductory biophysics and neuroscience. © 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers.

Publication Date

4-24-2009

Publication Title

American Journal of Physics

ISSN

00029505

Volume

77

Issue

5

First Page

424

Last Page

429

DOI

10.1119/1.3090827

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