In
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...
, a population vector is the sum of the preferred directions of a population of
neuron
A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, electrically excitable cell (biology), cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous ...
s,
weighted
A weight function is a mathematical device used when performing a sum, integral, or average to give some elements more "weight" or influence on the result than other elements in the same set. The result of this application of a weight function is ...
by the respective spike counts.
The formula for computing the (normalized) population vector,
, takes the following form:
Where
is the activity of cell
, and
is the preferred input for cell
.
Note that the vector
encodes the input direction,
, in terms of the activation of a population of neurons.
Computational neuroscience
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