Small modulation of ongoing cortical dynamics by sensory input during natural vision

During vision, it is believed that neural activity in the primary visual cortex is predominantly driven by sensory input from the environment. However, visual cortical neurons respond to repeated presentations of the same stimulus with a high degree of variability. Although this variability has been considered to be noise owing to random spontaneous activity within the cortex, recent studies show that spontaneous activity has a highly coherent spatio-temporal structure. This raises the possibility that the pattern of this spontaneous activity may shape neural responses during natural viewing conditions to a larger extent than previously thought. Here, we examine the relationship between spontaneous activity and the response of primary visual cortical neurons to dynamic natural-scene and random-noise film images in awake, freely viewing ferrets from the time of eye opening to maturity. The correspondence between evoked neural activity and the structure of the input signal was weak in young animals, but systematically improved with age. This improvement was linked to a shift in the dynamics of spontaneous activity. At all ages including the mature animal, correlations in spontaneous neural firing were only slightly modified by visual stimulation, irrespective of the sensory input. These results suggest that in both the developing and mature visual cortex, sensory evoked neural activity represents the modulation and triggering of ongoing circuit dynamics by input signals, rather than directly reflecting the structure of the input signal itself.     

Gain control by layer six in cortical circuits of vision

After entering the cerebral cortex, sensory information spreads through six different horizontal neuronal layers that are interconnected by vertical axonal projections. It is believed that through these projections layers can influence each other's response to sensory stimuli, but the specific role that each layer has in cortical processing is still poorly understood. Here we show that layer six in the primary visual cortex of the mouse has a crucial role in controlling the gain of visually evoked activity in neurons of the upper layers without changing their tuning to orientation. This gain modulation results from the coordinated action of layer six intracortical projections to superficial layers and deep projections to the thalamus, with a substantial role of the intracortical circuit. This study establishes layer six as a major mediator of cortical gain modulation and suggests that it could be a node through which convergent inputs from several brain areas can regulate the earliest steps of cortical visual processing.     

Attractor dynamics of network UP states in the neocortex

The cerebral cortex receives input from lower brain regions, and its function is traditionally considered to be processing that input through successive stages to reach an appropriate output. However, the cortical circuit contains many interconnections, including those feeding back from higher centres, and is continuously active even in the absence of sensory inputs. Such spontaneous firing has a structure that reflects the coordinated activity of specific groups of neurons. Moreover, the membrane potential of cortical neurons fluctuates spontaneously between a resting (DOWN) and a depolarized (UP) state, which may also be coordinated. The elevated firing rate in the UP state follows sensory stimulation and provides a substrate for persistent activity, a network state that might mediate working memory. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we reconstructed the dynamics of spontaneous activity of up to 1,400 neurons in slices of mouse visual cortex. Here we report the occurrence of synchronized UP state transitions ('cortical flashes') that occur in spatially organized ensembles involving small numbers of neurons. Because of their stereotyped spatiotemporal dynamics, we conclude that network UP states are circuit attractors--emergent features of feedback neural networks that could implement memory states or solutions to computational problems.     

Orientation-specific cortical responses develop in early infancy

Neurones in the visual cortex of higher mammals differ from those elsewhere in the visual pathway in that the majority respond selectively to particular edge or bar orientations in the stimulus. We have developed a visually evoked potential (VEP) technique which isolates the response of orientation-selective mechanisms from that of cortical or sub-cortical neurones which lack orientation selectivity. We are unable to find such orientation-selective responses in newborn human infants within the sensitivity of our method, but repeated longitudinal testing of individual infants shows that measurable responses emerge around 6 weeks of age. This result is consistent with the idea that human cortical visual function is very immature at birth, but develops rapidly in the first two postnatal months.     

Acetylcholine inhibits identified interneurons in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus

The transmission of visual information from retina to cortex through the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) is controlled by non-retinal inputs. Enhanced visually evoked responses in cat LGNd relay cells during periods of increased alertness have been attributed in large part to increased rate of acetylcholine (ACh) release by fibres ascending from the brainstem reticular formation. ACh can modulate geniculate visual responses in vivo, but comparatively little is known about the underlying ionic mechanisms of these cholinergic actions. Although direct excitation of LGNd relay neurons has been shown in vitro, the situation is complicated because cholinergic axons form numerous and complex synapses not only with relay cells, but also with inhibitory interneurons, and electrical activation of the brainstem cholinergic neurons reduces inhibitory postsynaptic potentials in the LGNd. We report here that morphologically characterized interneurons in the cat LGNd possess distinctive electrophysiological properties in comparison with those of relay cells and are inhibited by ACh through a muscarinic receptor-mediated increase in potassium conductance. Together the direct excitation of relay cells and inhibition of intrageniculate interneurons allow the ascending cholinergic system to exert a powerful facilitatory influence over the transfer of visual information to the cerebral cortex.     

一种基于皮层变换的图像融合方法

提出一种基于皮层变换的图像融合方法. 该方法模拟生物视觉皮层中简单细胞的响应特性,将单幅图像映射成一系列分辨力及方向各异的子图像,子图像中每个像素代表了视觉皮层中某个神经元的响应. 通过简单的展开运算和加法操作就可实现逆变换. 仿真实验表明,较之于基于最大绝对系数和最大方向对比度的小波变换融合方法而言,该方法在交叉熵和对比度意义上性能更佳. 对于某些源图像而言,其主观效果亦更好.     

稳态视觉诱发电位频率与相位特性的脑电研究

以往的研究发现,头皮脑电在枕区电极处所测得的稳态视觉诱发响应的幅度随着刺激频率的变化而变化。为了解释这一现象,该文采用一个3层的边界元头模型以及基于该模型的求逆算法,通过真实脑电数据分析,发现位于左、右侧枕区的皮层源在稳态视觉诱发响应上存在着时间差,由此提出假设:左、右侧枕区的皮层源在不同刺激频率下,在时间相位上存在着差异,这是造成不同刺激频率下脑电响应幅度存在差异的原因之一。通过仿真实验进一步验证了该假设的合理性。     

Visual behaviour mediated by retinal projections directed to the auditory pathway

An unresolved issue in cortical development concerns the relative contributions of intrinsic and extrinsic factors to the functional specification of different cortical areas. Ferrets in which retinal projections are redirected neonatally to the auditory thalamus have visually responsive cells in auditory thalamus and cortex, form a retinotopic map in auditory cortex and have visual receptive field properties in auditory cortex that are typical of cells in visual cortex. Here we report that this cross-modal projection and its representation in auditory cortex can mediate visual behaviour. When light stimuli are presented in the portion of the visual field that is 'seen' only by this projection, 'rewired' ferrets respond as though they perceive the stimuli to be visual rather than auditory. Thus the perceptual modality of a neocortical region is instructed to a significant extent by its extrinsic inputs. In addition, gratings of different spatial frequencies can be discriminated by the rewired pathway, although the grating acuity is lower than that of the normal visual pathway.     

Induction of visual orientation modules in auditory cortex

Modules of neurons sharing a common property are a basic organizational feature of mammalian sensory cortex. Primary visual cortex (V1) is characterized by orientation modules--groups of cells that share a preferred stimulus orientation--which are organized into a highly ordered orientation map. Here we show that in ferrets in which retinal projections are routed into the auditory pathway, visually responsive neurons in 'rewired' primary auditory cortex are also organized into orientation modules. The orientation tuning of neurons within these modules is comparable to the tuning of cells in V1 but the orientation map is less orderly. Horizontal connections in rewired cortex are more patchy and periodic than connections in normal auditory cortex, but less so than connections in V1. These data show that afferent activity has a profound influence on diverse components of cortical circuitry, including thalamocortical and local intracortical connections, which are involved in the generation of orientation tuning, and long-range horizontal connections, which are important in creating an orientation map.     

Mapping multiple features in the population response of visual cortex

Stimulus features such as edge orientation, motion direction and spatial frequency are thought to be encoded in the primary visual cortex by overlapping feature maps arranged so that the location of neurons activated by a particular combination of stimulus features can be predicted from the intersections of these maps. This view is based on the use of grating stimuli, which limit the range of stimulus combinations that can be examined. We used optical imaging of intrinsic signals in ferrets to assess patterns of population activity evoked by the motion of a texture (a field of iso-oriented bars). Here we show that the same neural population can be activated by multiple combinations of orientation, length, motion axis and speed. Rather than reflecting the intersection of multiple maps, our results indicate that population activity in primary visual cortex is better described as a single map of spatiotemporal energy.     

Body image as a visuomotor transformation device revealed in adaptation to reversed vision

People adapt with remarkable flexibility to reversal of the visual field caused by prism spectacles. With sufficient time, this adaptation restores visually guided behaviour and perceptual harmony between the visible and tactile worlds. Although it has been suggested that seeing one's own body is crucial for adaptation, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here we show that a new representation of visuomotor mapping with respect to the hands emerges in a month during adaptation to reversed vision. The subjects become bi-perceptual, or able to use both new and old representations. In a visual task designed to assess the new hand representation, subjects identified visually presented hands as left or right by matching the picture to the representation of their own hands. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed brain activity in the left posterior frontal cortex (Broca's area) that was unique to the new hand representations of both hands, together with activation in the intraparietal sulcus and prefrontal cortex. The emergence of the new hand representation coincided with the adaptation of perceived location of visible objects in space. These results suggest that the hand representation operates as a visuomotor transformation device that provides an arm-centred frame of reference for space perception.     

Experience with moving visual stimuli drives the early development of cortical direction selectivity

The onset of vision occurs when neural circuits in the visual cortex are immature, lacking both the full complement of connections and the response selectivity that defines functional maturity. Direction-selective responses are particularly vulnerable to the effects of early visual deprivation, but it remains unclear how stimulus-driven neural activity guides the emergence of cortical direction selectivity. Here we report observations from a motion training protocol that allowed us to monitor the impact of experience on the development of direction-selective responses in visually naive ferrets. Using intrinsic signal imaging techniques, we found that training with a single axis of motion induced the rapid emergence of direction columns that were confined to cortical regions preferentially activated by the training stimulus. Using two-photon calcium imaging techniques, we found that single neurons in visually naive animals exhibited weak directional biases and lacked the strong local coherence in the spatial organization of direction preference that was evident in mature animals. Training with a moving stimulus, but not with a flashed stimulus, strengthened the direction-selective responses of individual neurons and preferentially reversed the direction biases of neurons that deviated from their neighbours. Both effects contributed to an increase in local coherence. We conclude that early experience with moving visual stimuli drives the rapid emergence of direction-selective responses in the visual cortex.     

FPGA多通道视皮层刺激器

设计了一款用于视皮层视觉修复的基于FPGA的多通道视皮层刺激器。该刺激器由FPGA和外围电压/电流转换电路两部分组成。FPGA内部包括刺激脉冲发生器和多个多路选择器:刺激脉冲发生器产生各种形式的脉冲序列信号;多路选择器作为控制端实现对信号的选择,每一通道对应一个多路选择器,增加多路选择器即可实现通道的增加。FPGA输出的电压信号通过外围电压/电流转换电路,转换为电流信号后传入电极阵列。采用Altera公司Cyclone系列EP1C6型FPGA制作了四通道实验样机进行动物实验。采用猫作为实验对象,在猫的视皮层硬脑膜外左右两侧植入微电极,左侧接入刺激信号,右侧记录脑电,实验结果显示,视皮层能够响应来自对硬脑膜的电刺激,验证了所设计的刺激器是可行的。     

Involvement of visual cortex in tactile discrimination of orientation.

The primary sense modalities (vision, touch and so on) are generally thought of as distinct. However, visual imagery is implicated in the normal tactile perception of some object properties, such as orientation, shape and size. Furthermore, certain tactile tasks, such as discrimination of grating orientation and object recognition, are associated with activity in areas of visual cortex. Here we show that disrupting function of the occipital cortex using focal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) interferes with the tactile discrimination of grating orientation. The specificity of this effect is illustrated by its time course and spatial restriction over the scalp, and by the failure of occipital TMS to affect either detection of an electrical stimulus applied to the fingerpad or tactile discrimination of grating texture. In contrast, TMS over the somatosensory cortex blocked discrimination of grating texture as well as orientation. We also report that, during tactile discrimination of grating orientation, an evoked potential is recorded over posterior scalp regions with a latency corresponding to the peak of the TMS interference effect (about 180 ms). The findings indicate that visual cortex is closely involved in tactile discrimination of orientation. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that visual cortical processing is necessary for normal tactile perception.     

Retinal ganglion cells act largely as independent encoders

Correlated firing among neurons is widespread in the visual system. Neighbouring neurons, in areas from retina to cortex, tend to fire together more often than would be expected by chance. The importance of this correlated firing for encoding visual information is unclear and controversial. Here we examine its importance in the retina. We present the retina with natural stimuli and record the responses of its output cells, the ganglion cells. We then use information theoretic techniques to measure the amount of information about the stimuli that can be obtained from the cells under two conditions: when their correlated firing is taken into account, and when their correlated firing is ignored. We find that more than 90% of the information about the stimuli can be obtained from the cells when their correlated firing is ignored. This indicates that ganglion cells act largely independently to encode information, which greatly simplifies the problem of decoding their activity.     

中华大蟾蜍胚后原始大脑皮层神经元自发电活动的发育变化

应用微电极电生理技术对中华大蟾蜍(Bufo bufo gargarizans)胚后端脑原始大脑皮层神经元的自发放电活动进行在体胞外记录,探讨其胚后端脑原始大脑皮层神经元自发电活的电生理学特性的发育变化。结果表明原始大脑皮层神经元的自发放电有5种形式。胚后发育的早期为4种放电类型,以簇状放电和连续放电为主;胚后发育的后期为5种放电类型,以簇状和连续簇状放电为主。随着原始大脑皮层的发育,单个放电的动作电位时程缩短,连续单个放电和连续簇状放电频率降低,连续放电、簇状放电和连续簇状放电的持续时间延长。随着端脑原始大脑皮层的发育,神经元的兴奋性逐步提高,神经元电活动形式逐渐呈现多样化。     

Sustained firing in auditory cortex evoked by preferred stimuli

It has been well documented that neurons in the auditory cortex of anaesthetized animals generally display transient responses to acoustic stimulation, and typically respond to a brief stimulus with one or fewer action potentials. The number of action potentials evoked by each stimulus usually does not increase with increasing stimulus duration. Such observations have long puzzled researchers across disciplines and raised serious questions regarding the role of the auditory cortex in encoding ongoing acoustic signals. Contrary to these long-held views, here we show that single neurons in both primary (area A1) and lateral belt areas of the auditory cortex of awake marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) are capable of firing in a sustained manner over a prolonged period of time, especially when they are driven by their preferred stimuli. In contrast, responses become more transient or phasic when auditory cortex neurons respond to non-preferred stimuli. These findings suggest that when the auditory cortex is stimulated by a sound, a particular population of neurons fire maximally throughout the duration of the sound. Responses of other, less optimally driven neurons fade away quickly after stimulus onset. This results in a selective representation of the sound across both neuronal population and time.     

Na~+、K~+、Ca~(2+)对柞蚕幼虫在体胸神经节自发放电活动的影响

以柞蚕五龄幼虫为材料 ,运用微电极电生理技术 ,以胞外记录的方法 ,记录了柞蚕幼虫在体胸神经节的自发放电活动 .并观察了胞外Na+、K+、Ca2 +的浓度变化对放电活动的影响 .结果表明 ,柞蚕幼虫胸神经节胞外自发放电有 3种形式 ,即慢节律单个放电、簇状放电及连续放电 ,其离子机制可能既有Na+动作电位 ,又有Ca2 +动作电位     

Identifying natural images from human brain activity

A challenging goal in neuroscience is to be able to read out, or decode, mental content from brain activity. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have decoded orientation, position and object category from activity in visual cortex. However, these studies typically used relatively simple stimuli (for example, gratings) or images drawn from fixed categories (for example, faces, houses), and decoding was based on previous measurements of brain activity evoked by those same stimuli or categories. To overcome these limitations, here we develop a decoding method based on quantitative receptive-field models that characterize the relationship between visual stimuli and fMRI activity in early visual areas. These models describe the tuning of individual voxels for space, orientation and spatial frequency, and are estimated directly from responses evoked by natural images. We show that these receptive-field models make it possible to identify, from a large set of completely novel natural images, which specific image was seen by an observer. Identification is not a mere consequence of the retinotopic organization of visual areas; simpler receptive-field models that describe only spatial tuning yield much poorer identification performance. Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone.     

诱发电位的关联维数研究

研究了视觉刺激前后脑电(EEG)以及视觉诱发电位的非线性特征,计算了单次和多次叠加平均情况下EEG的关联维数,结果表明:诱发电位具有一定的非线性特征,诱发电位的关联维数低于自发脑电,说明诱发电位的复杂性低于自发脑电.