Population coding by globally coupled phase oscillators

A system of globally coupled phase oscillators subject to an external input is considered as a simple model of neural circuits coding external stimulus. The information coding efficiency of the system in its asynchronous state is quantified using Fisher information. The effect of coupling and noise on the information coding efficiency in the stationary state is analyzed. The relaxation process of the system after the presentation of an external input is also studied. It is found that the information coding efficiency exhibits a large transient increase before the system relaxes to the final stationary state.