Population vector

In neuroscience, a population vector is the sum of the preferred directions of a population of neurons, weighted by the respective spike counts.

The formula for computing the (normalized) population vector, $F$, takes the following form:

$F={\frac {\sum _{j}m_{j}F_{j}}{\sum _{j}m_{j}}}$

Where $m_{j}$ is the activity of cell $j$, and $F_{j}$ is the preferred input for cell $j$.

Note that the vector $F$ encodes the input direction, $F_{j}$, in terms of the activation of a population of neurons.