Neuronal Ensemble Modeling and Analysis with Variable Order Markov Models

Book excerpt: Neuronal cells (neurons) mainly transmit signals by action potentials or spikes.Neuronal electrical activity is recorded from experimental animals bymicroelectrodesplaced in specific brain areas. These electrochemical fast phenomenaoccur as all-or-none events and can be analyzed as boolean sequences. Followingthis approach, several computational analyses reported most variable neuronalbehaviors expressed through a large variety of firing patterns [13]. Thesepatternshave been modeled as symbolic strings with a number of different techniques[23, 55]The results obtained with these methods come (i) from Ventrobasal ThalamicNuclei (VB) and Somatosensory Cortex (SSI) in Chronic Pain Animals (CPAs), (ii) from Primary Visual (V1) and (SSI) in rat Cortices and, finally, (iii) fromIL human Thalamus Nuclei in patients suffering from states of disorderedconsciousnesslike Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) and Minimum Conscious State(MCS).