Peri-Stimulus Time Histogram

A peri-stimulus time histogram (PSTH) displays spike counts in fixed time bins aligned to a stimulus or behavioral event across multiple trials.

Why it matters: PSTHs are the standard method for visualizing and quantifying time-locked neural responses. They reveal response onset latency, duration, magnitude, and temporal precision.

Construction: Spike times from a unit's spike train are aligned to event times, binned (typically 1–50 ms bins), and averaged across trials. The result shows the time-varying firing rate relative to the event.

Related visualizations: Raster plots show individual trial spike times; PSTHs summarize the average pattern. Together they form the standard figure for presenting stimulus-evoked neural responses.