Figure 3

Estimating temporal precision of firing using the Jitter-Based Synchrony Index. The three superimposed plots represent different simulated paired spike trains; each plot is an average of five runs of the simulation (error bars indicate standard error of the mean). The average firing rate r (approximately 45 Hz) and the rate of inserted coincidences D (0.2) were identical for all pairs, but the precision of synchrony C was varied from 1 to 4 ms. (A) The Z-score is plotted against the jitter span τ _J , which was varied from 1 to 16 in √2-fold increments while τ _S was maintained at τ _J /2. The intersections of the three plots with the line Z = 3.3, representing a significance threshold of p = 0.001, correspond to τ _J  = 1.5, 3 and 6 ms (black arrows). (B) For the same simulations as in (A), the JBSI is plotted for increasing values of the synchrony span τ _S . Cutoff points, from which the JBSI fell steeply to the left, correspond to τ _S  = 1, 2 and 4 ms (black arrows).