Neurons of the cerebral cortex exhibit precise interspike timing in correspondence to behavior.

Abstract

We show that times of spikes can be very precise. In the cerebral cortex, where each nerve cell is affected by thousands of others, it is the common belief that the exact time of a spike is random up to an averaged firing rate over tens of milliseconds. In a brain slice, precise time relations of several neurons have been observed. It remained unclear whether this phenomenon can also be observed in brains of behaving animals. Here we show, in behaving monkeys, that time intervals between spikes, measured in correspondence to a specific behavior, may be controlled to within the milliseconds range.