Maximum Caliber Infers Effective Coupling and Response from Spiking Networks

The characterization of network and biophysical properties from neural spiking activity is an important goal in neuroscience. A framework that provides unbiased inference on causal synaptic interaction and single neural properties has been missing. Here we applied the stochastic dynamics extension of Maximum Entropy -- the Maximum Caliber Principle -- to infer the transition rates of network states. Effective synaptic coupling strength and neuronal response functions for various network motifs can then be computed. The inferred minimal model also enables leading-order reconstruction of inter-spike interval distribution. Our method is tested with numerical simulated spiking networks and applied to data from salamander retina.