Efficient population coding depends on stimulus convergence and source of noise
Fig 3
Maximized mutual information for the lumped- and independent-coding channels for a population of three neurons.
A. Information of the independent-coding channel for different combinations of output noise R and input noise σ. Contours indicate constant information. B. Information of the lumped-coding channel. C. Absolute information difference between the two coding channels. D. Information ratio between the two coding channels. Both C and D show a region of intermediate output noise where the independent-coding channel substantially outperforms the lumped-coding channel. E. Information difference depending on input noise σ for various levels of output noise R, corresponding to vertical slices from C. We also include the special case of zero output noise, R → ∞. F. Information difference depending on output noise R for various levels of input noise σ, corresponding to horizontal slices from C.