Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory neuroscientists have demonstrated that “spike timing” in cortical neurons can influence behavior even at minuscule time intervals, more precisely than previously imagined.

Experiments focusing on the auditory cortex revealed that animals in the midst of decision-making have the ability to distinguish incoming signals separated by as little as three milliseconds.

The new data suggest that the neural code might actually be a timing code, where information is encoded within the precise pattern of spiking, not in the spiking rate of the neuron.