ArticleNeuron2016
Neural Variability and Sampling-Based Probabilistic Representations in the Visual Cortex.
Article in Neuron, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 120 papers.
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Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed.
- Feature interference underlies a neuronal basis for the behavioral cost of task uncertainty.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Tracking the Fidelity of Internal Neural Representations with Error-In-Variables Regression.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Spike-based alignment learning solves the weight transport problem.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Combining sampling and attractor dynamics in spiking models of head direction systems.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- A corticostriatal circuit updates subjective beliefs about latent task states.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A shared multi-feature population code for sensory reliability across mouse visual cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The neural code of perceptual inference.Molecular brain · 2026Review
- Size tuning of neural response variability in laminar circuits of macaque primary visual cortex.eLife · 2026Article
- Increased Perceptual Reliability Reduces Membrane Potential Variability in Cortical Neurons.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Stochasticity in action potential backpropagation: consequences for neuronal computation.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Neural mechanisms of flexible perceptual inference.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Long-term perceptual priors drive confidence bias that favors prior-congruent evidence.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Top-down perceptual inference shaping the activity of early visual cortex.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Continuous partitioning of neuronal variability.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The neural basis for uncertainty processing in hierarchical decision making.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Neural variability reliably encodes interindividual differences in the perception of pain intensity.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Learning and inference with correlated neural variability.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Neural variability in the default mode network compresses with increasing belief precision during Bayesian inference.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Relating natural image statistics to patterns of response covariability in macaque primary visual cortex.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Disentangling signal and noise in neural responses through generative modeling.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neural responses in the visual cortex are variable, and there is now an abundance of data characterizing how the magnitude and structure of this variability depends on the stimulus. Current theories of cortical computation fail to account for these data; they either ignore variability altogether or only model its unstructured Poisson-like aspects. We develop a theory in which the cortex performs probabilistic inference such that population activity patterns represent statistical samples from the inferred probability distribution. Our main prediction is that perceptual uncertainty is directly encoded by the variability, rather than the average, of cortical responses. Through direct comparisons to previously published data as well as original data analyses, we show that a sampling-based probabilistic representation accounts for the structure of noise, signal, and spontaneous response variability and correlations in the primary visual cortex. These results suggest a novel role for neural variability in cortical dynamics and computations.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.