Time and Frequency Domain Analysis of Spike Train and Time Series Data

Abstract

The concept of a spike triggered average will be familiar to many neurophysiologists. The first application in neurophysiology by Mendell and Henneman (1968, 1971) was used to examine the magnitude of monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSP) from muscle spindle la afferents onto homonymous motoneurons, which provided a major piece of evidence in the development of the size principle for motoneuron recruitment (see Henneman and Mendell, 1981). The technique has gained widespread acceptance, and been widely used to investigate the strength of synaptic connections in the mammalian central nervous system (e.g. Watt et al., 1976; Stauffer et al., 1976; Kirkwood and Sears, 1980; Cope et al., 1987), leading to new insights and an increased understanding of basic neurophysiological mechanisms.