(old graphics for a presentation; neural manifolds can drift in many ways. Some are disruptive, some are not. Some are easier to compensate for than others)
Things that lead to tangent variability (affect coding):
- Variability within the embedding space
- In-band variability: changes in neuronal tuning to behavior
- Coordinate distortions: Generally disruptive
- Contraction or expansion, rigid transformations: Require compensation, some component will disrupt coding (how much?)
Things that do not lead to tangent variability:
- Variations that are in the null space of the embedding space
- Some changes in manifold expansion/contraction is orthogonal to coding direction
Things that lead to correctable variability:
- Rigid transformation (+translation): generally, these changes can be corrected for by re-alignment.
- Sufficiently large-scale variability looks like rigid transformation (+translation) locally
- High-frequency / fine-scale variability can be removed by filtering
