Population vector

In neuroscience, a population vector is the sum of the preferred directions of a population of neurons, weighted by the respective spike counts. ^[1]

The formula for computing the (normalized) population vector, ${\displaystyle F}$, takes the following form:

${\displaystyle F={\frac {\sum _{j}m_{j}F_{j}}{\sum _{j}m_{j}}}}$

Where ${\displaystyle m_{j}}$ is the activity of cell ${\displaystyle j}$, and ${\displaystyle F_{j}}$ is the preferred input for cell ${\displaystyle j}$.

Note that the vector ${\displaystyle F}$ encodes the input direction, ${\displaystyle F_{j}}$, in terms of the activation of a population of neurons.

References

1. Westover, M. Brandon; Eliasmith, Chris; Anderson, Charles H. (June 2002). "Linearly decodable functions from neural population codes". Neurocomputing. 44–46: 691–696. doi:10.1016/s0925-2312(02)00459-9. ISSN   0925-2312. PMC   7062372 . PMID   32153318.