Mixed selectivity: when neurons stopped looking like specialists | Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Advertisement Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2025)Cite this article 182 Accesses 15 Altmetric Metrics details Access to this article via Nokia's Digital Library, InfoView @ http://infoview.all.alcatel-lucent.com is not available. I still remember the sound of neurons. In 2012, I sat in the laboratory recording a single unit in the barn owl’s inferior colliculus, presenting pure tones and watching its tuning curve emerge on the screen. That neuron had a voice: it fired for exactly the frequencies it ‘liked’ and stayed silent otherwise. Watching its response unfold in real time felt like uncovering a neural fingerprint: a sing

Subjects Neural decoding Neural encoding Access through your institution Buy or subscribe I still remember the sound of neurons. In 2012, I sat in the laboratory recording a single unit in the barn owl’s inferior colliculus, presenting pure tones and watching its tuning curve emerge on the screen. That neuron had a voice: it fired for exactly the frequencies it ‘liked’ and stayed silent otherwise. Watching its response unfold in real time felt like uncovering a neural fingerprint: a single, univariate response property that seemed to define that neuron. At the time, this was how many of us tho

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