Population coding by cell assemblies—what it really is in the brain

One of the central questions in neuroscience concerns the basic code for information processing in the brain. Much experimental evidence and theoretical consideration have suggested that single-neuron coding is no longer a tenable hypothesis. The present review explains why population neuronal coding is valid and discusses how it is carried out in the brain. The main context is experimental access to real features of the coding in working brains as deduced from experimental research. Several recent studies recording neuronal activities from behaving animals have shown that ensemble activity of neurons represents specific information, indicating the reality of population coding by many neurons. The key concept which can integrate the experimental evidence is the 'cell assembly', i.e., overlapped populations of neurons with flexible functional connections within and among the populations. Correlated activity among the neurons constructs the functional connection. In order to see features of the cell-assembly coding, two main properties of cell assemblies in processing several different kinds of information must be investigated, that is, the overlapping of neurons and the dynamics of synaptic connections. This manner of coding can provide both the experimental and theoretical framework to detect the real dynamic features of information processing by the brain.