Efficient sensory coding implies that populations of neurons should represent information-
rich aspects of a signal with little redundancy. Recent studies have shown that neural
heterogeneity in higher brain areas enhances the efficiency of encoding by reducing
redundancy across the population. Here, we study how neural heterogeneity in the early
stages of sensory processing influences the efficiency of population codes. Through the
analysis of in vivo recordings, we contrast the encoding of two types of communication …

Marsat G, Maler L. Neural heterogeneity and efficient population codes for communication
signals. J Neurophysiol 104: 2543–2555, 2010. First published July 14, 2010; doi:
10.1152/jn. 00256.2010. Efficient sensory coding implies that populations of neurons should
represent information-rich aspects of a signal with little redundancy-. Recent studies have
shown that neural heterogeneity in higher brain areas enhances the efficiency of encoding
by reducing redundancy across the population. Here, we study how neural heterogeneity in …