Figure 1. Encoding in the mean and variance channel.

(A) Simultaneous increase of excitatory and reduction of inhibitory activity (or vice versa) results in a mean current change (right, green). On the other hand, simultaneous increase (or reduction) in excitatory and inhibitory spiking activity results in modifications of the net current variance (left, red). These modifications constitute two primary channels of communication in a cortical network. (B) In a cortical network the excitatory and inhibitory currents add up such that the net somatic current is only weakly correlated across neurons [31], [32].