Synergistic activity between primary visual neurons

View/ Open
Publication date
2014Author(s)
Bharmauria, Vishal; Bachatene, Lyes; Cattan, Sarah; Rouat, Jean; Molotchnikoff, Stéphane
Subject
Inter-neural relationshipsAbstract
Abstract : Cortical microcircuitry plays a pivotal role in encoding sensory information reaching the
cortex. However, the fundamental knowledge concerning the mechanisms that govern
feature-encoding by these sub-networks is still sparse. Here, we show through multi
electrode recordings in V1 of conventionally prepared anesthetized cats, that an avalanche
of synergistic neural activity occurs between functionally connected neurons in a cell
assembly in response to the presented stimulus. The results specifically show that once the
reference neuron spikes in a connected neuron-pair, it facilitates the response of its
companion (target) neuron for 50 ms and, thereafter, the excitability of the target neuron
declines. On the other hand, the functionally unconnected neurons do not facilitate each
other’s activity within the 50 ms time-window. The added excitation (facilitation) of
connected neurons is almost four times the responsiveness of unconnected neurons. This
suggests that connectedness confers the added excitability to neurons; consequently leading to feature-encoding within the emergent 50 ms-period. Furthermore, the facilitation
significantly decreases as a function of orientation selectivity spread.
Collection
The following license files are associated with this document: