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We introduce a different representation of the population spike pattern, which we call an \u201cinformation train,\u201d that is well suited to conditions of sparse responses, especially those that involve decreases rather than increases in firing. We use this tool to study populations with varying levels of burstiness in their spiking statistics to determine how burstiness affects the representation of spike decreases (firing \u201cgaps\u201d). Our simulated populations of spiking neurons varied in size, baseline rate, burst statistics, and correlation. Using the information train decoder, we find that there is an optimal level of burstiness for gap detection that is robust to several other parameters of the population. We consider this theoretical result in the context of experimental data from different types of retinal ganglion cells and determine that the baseline spike statistics of a recently identified type support nearly optimal detection of both the onset and strength of a contrast step.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/neco_a_01595","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,11]],"date-time":"2023-07-11T12:41:34Z","timestamp":1689079294000},"page":"1363-1403","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Optimal Burstiness in Populations of Spiking Neurons Facilitates Decoding of Decreases in Tonic Firing"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"35","author":[{"given":"Sylvia C. 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