Robert E. Kass

Continual improvements in data collection and processing have had a huge impact on brain research, producing data sets that are often large and complicated. By emphasizing a few fundamental principles, and a handful of ubiquitous techniques, Analysis of Neural Data provides a unified treatment of analytical methods that have become essential for contemporary researchers. Throughout the book ideas are illustrated with more than 100 examples drawn from the literature, ranging from electrophysiology, to neuroimaging, to behavior. By demonstrating the commonality among various statistical approaches the authors provide the crucial tools for gaining knowledge from diverse types of data. Aimed at experimentalists with only high-school level mathematics, as well as computationally-oriented neuroscientists who have limited familiarity with statistics, Analysis of Neural Data serves as both a self-contained introduction and a reference work.

Continual improvements in data collection and processing have had a huge impact on brain research, producing data sets that are often large and complicated. By emphasizing a few fundamental principles, and a handful of ubiquitous techniques, Analysis of Neural Data provides a unified treatment of analytical methods that have become essential for contemporary researchers. Throughout the book ideas are illustrated with more than 100 examples drawn from the literature, ranging from electrophysiology, to neuroimaging, to behavior. By demonstrating the commonality among various statistical approaches the authors provide the crucial tools for gaining knowledge from diverse types of data. Aimed at experimentalists with only high-school level mathematics, as well as computationally-oriented neuroscientists who have limited familiarity with statistics, Analysis of Neural Data serves as both a self-contained introduction and a reference work.

Differential geometry provides an aesthetically appealing and oftenrevealing view of statistical inference. Beginning with anelementary treatment of one-parameter statistical models and endingwith an overview of recent developments, this is the first book toprovide an introduction to the subject that is largely accessibleto readers not already familiar with differential geometry. It alsogives a streamlined entry into the field to readers with richermathematical backgrounds. Much space is devoted to curvedexponential families, which are of interest not only because theymay be studied geometrically but also because they are analyticallyconvenient, so that results may be derived rigorously. In addition,several appendices provide useful mathematical material on basicconcepts in differential geometry. Topics covered include thefollowing: * Basic properties of curved exponential families * Elements of second-order, asymptotic theory * The Fisher-Efron-Amari theory of information loss and recovery * Jeffreys-Rao information-metric Riemannian geometry * Curvature measures of nonlinearity * Geometrically motivated diagnostics for exponential familyregression * Geometrical theory of divergence functions * A classification of and introduction to additional work in thefield