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, F {\displaystyle F} , takes the following form:

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

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

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

References