20 - Effects of Intensity on Spike Rate
Channel: Aaron J Newman
Date: 2021-11-06

This lesson expands on the optogenetic spike train data we worked with in the previous chapter. Now we have data recorded from a neuron as it was stimulated with ten different intensities of the light that activates its receptors (550 nm green). We have 10 trials’ worth of data at each intensity, so 100 trials in total. Each trial was 20 ms long, with optical stimulation starting at 5 ms and ending at 15 ms. Measuring the neuron’s response across a range of intensities allows us to map out the response “profile” of the neuron in terms of the number of spikes elicited by differing intensities.

Learning Objectives¶
- Understand spike data in sparse format
- Select data for a specific intensity level
- Plot raster plots and PSTHs for specific intensity levels
- Plot raster plots and PSTHs for all intensity levels
- Use Matplotlib subplots to visualize multivariate data
- Format a complex Matplotlib figure with appropriate labeling and scales
- Use a combination of raster and PSTH plots to make inferences about the relationship between an experimentally-manipulated variable and spike rate and timing.

From the course, NESC 3505 Neural Data Science, by Aaron J Newman, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. 

All course videos are here: https://bit.ly/neural_data_science_videos

Textbook is available here: http://neuraldatascience.io/intro.html

The data set is adapted from Nylen, E.L., and Wallisch, P.. (2017). Neural Data Science. Academic Press.