scholarly journals Composite receptive fields in the mouse auditory cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sihao Lu ◽  
Mark Steadman ◽  
Grace W. Y. Ang ◽  
Andrei S. Kozlov
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Natural Stimulus ◽  
Natural Stimuli ◽  
Categorical Representation ◽  
Sparse Filtering ◽  
Auditory Systems ◽  
Central Auditory Neurons ◽  
And Behavior

A central question in sensory neuroscience is how neurons represent complex natural stimuli. This process involves multiple steps of feature extraction to obtain a condensed, categorical representation useful for classification and behavior. It has previously been shown that central auditory neurons in the starling have composite receptive fields composed of multiple features when probed with conspecific songs. Whether this property is an idiosyncratic characteristic of songbirds, a group of highly specialized vocal learners, or a generic characteristic of central auditory systems in different animals is, however, unknown. To address this question, we have recorded responses from auditory cortical neurons in mice, and characterized their receptive fields using mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) as a natural and ethologically relevant stimulus and pitch-shifted starling songs as a natural but ethologically irrelevant control stimulus. We have found that auditory cortical neurons in the mouse display composite receptive fields with multiple excitatory and inhibitory subunits. Moreover, this was the case with either the conspecific or the heterospecific vocalizations. We then trained the sparse filtering algorithm on both classes of natural stimuli to obtain statistically optimal features, and compared the natural and artificial features using UMAP, a dimensionality-reduction algorithm previously used to analyze mouse USVs and birdsongs. We have found that the receptive-field features obtained with the mouse USVs and those obtained with the pitch-shifted starling songs clustered together, as did the sparse-filtering features. However, the natural and artificial receptive-field features clustered mostly separately. These results indicate that composite receptive fields are likely a generic property of central auditory systems in different classes of animals. They further suggest that the quadratic receptive-field features of the mouse auditory cortical neurons are natural-stimulus invariant.

Two-dimensional receptive-field organization in striate cortical neurons of the cat

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 703-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Sun ◽  
A. B. Bonds
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Cortical Layers ◽  
Field Organization ◽  
Receptive Field Organization ◽  
Cortical Receptive Fields

AbstractThe two-dimensional organization of receptive fields (RFs) of 44 cells in the cat visual cortex and four cells from the cat LGN was measured by stimulation with either dots or bars of light. The light bars were presented in different positions and orientations centered on the RFs. The RFs found were arbitrarily divided into four general types: Punctate, resembling DOG filters (11%); those resembling Gabor filters (9%); elongate (36%); and multipeaked-type (44%). Elongate RFs, usually found in simple cells, could show more than one excitatory band or bifurcation of excitatory regions. Although regions inhibitory to a given stimulus transition (e.g. ON) often coincided with regions excitatory to the opposite transition (e.g. OFF), this was by no means the rule. Measurements were highly repeatable and stable over periods of at least 1 h. A comparison between measurements made with dots and with bars showed reasonable matches in about 40% of the cases. In general, bar-based measurements revealed larger RFs with more structure, especially with respect to inhibitory regions. Inactivation of lower cortical layers (V-VI) by local GABA injection was found to reduce sharpness of detail and to increase both receptive-field size and noise in upper layer cells, suggesting vertically organized RF mechanisms. Across the population, some cells bore close resemblance to theoretically proposed filters, while others had a complexity that was clearly not generalizable, to the extent that they seemed more suited to detection of specific structures. We would speculate that the broadly varying forms of cat cortical receptive fields result from developmental processes akin to those that form ocular-dominance columns, but on a smaller scale.

scholarly journals Attention operates uniformly throughout the classical receptive field and the surround

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram-Ernst Verhoef ◽  
John HR Maunsell
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Spatial Summation ◽  
Field Structure ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Classical Receptive Field ◽  
Spatially Varying

Shifting attention among visual stimuli at different locations modulates neuronal responses in heterogeneous ways, depending on where those stimuli lie within the receptive fields of neurons. Yet how attention interacts with the receptive-field structure of cortical neurons remains unclear. We measured neuronal responses in area V4 while monkeys shifted their attention among stimuli placed in different locations within and around neuronal receptive fields. We found that attention interacts uniformly with the spatially-varying excitation and suppression associated with the receptive field. This interaction explained the large variability in attention modulation across neurons, and a non-additive relationship among stimulus selectivity, stimulus-induced suppression and attention modulation that has not been previously described. A spatially-tuned normalization model precisely accounted for all observed attention modulations and for the spatial summation properties of neurons. These results provide a unified account of spatial summation and attention-related modulation across both the classical receptive field and the surround.

Disruption of Balanced Cortical Excitation and Inhibition by Acoustic Trauma

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 646-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Scholl ◽  
Michael Wehr
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Acoustic Trauma ◽  
Tone Frequency ◽  
Synaptic Excitation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
High Level ◽  
Whole Cell Recordings

Sensory deafferentation results in rapid shifts in the receptive fields of cortical neurons, but the synaptic mechanisms underlying these changes remain unknown. The rapidity of these shifts has led to the suggestion that subthreshold inputs may be unmasked by a selective loss of inhibition. To study this, we used in vivo whole cell recordings to directly measure tone-evoked excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs in auditory cortical neurons before and after acoustic trauma. Here we report that acute acoustic trauma disrupted the balance of excitation and inhibition by selectively increasing and reducing the strength of inhibition at different positions within the receptive field. Inhibition was abolished for frequencies far below the trauma-tone frequency but was markedly enhanced near the edges of the region of elevated peripheral threshold. These changes occurred for relatively high-level tones. These changes in inhibition led to an expansion of receptive fields but not by a simple unmasking process. Rather, membrane potential responses were delayed and prolonged throughout the receptive field by distinct interactions between synaptic excitation and inhibition. Far below the trauma-tone frequency, decreased inhibition combined with prolonged excitation led to increased responses. Near the edges of the region of elevated peripheral threshold, increased inhibition served to delay rather than abolish responses, which were driven by prolonged excitation. These results show that the rapid receptive field shifts caused by acoustic trauma are caused by distinct mechanisms at different positions within the receptive field, which depend on differential disruption of excitation and inhibition.

Responses of primate SI cortical neurons to noxious stimuli

1983 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1479-1496 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Kenshalo ◽  
O. Isensee
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
The Body ◽  
Thermal Stimulation ◽  
Discharge Frequency ◽  
Mechanical Stimuli ◽  
Noxious Heat ◽  
Nociceptive Neurons ◽  
Heat Pulses

Recordings were made from single SI cortical neurons in the anesthetized macaque monkey. Each isolated cortical neuron was tested for responses to a standard series of mechanical stimuli. The stimuli included brushing the skin, pressure, and pinch. The majority of cortical neurons responded with the greatest discharge frequency to brushing the receptive field, but neurons were found in areas 3b and 1 that responded maximally to pinching the receptive field. A total of 68 cortical nociceptive neurons were examined in 10 animals. Cortical neurons that responded maximally to pinching the skin were also tested for responses to graded noxious heat pulses (from 35 to 43, 45, 47, and 50 degrees C). If the neuron failed to respond or only responded to 50 degrees C, the receptive field was also heated to temperatures of 53 and 55 degrees C. Fifty-six of the total population of nociceptive neurons were tested for responses to the complete series of noxious heat pulses: 46 (80%) exhibited a progressive increase in the discharge frequency as a function of stimulus intensity, and the spontaneous activity of two (4%) was inhibited. One population of cortical nociceptive neurons possessed restricted, contralateral receptive fields. These cells encoded the intensity of noxious mechanical and thermal stimulation. Sensitization of primary afferent nociceptors was reflected in the responses of SI cortical nociceptive neurons when the ascending series of noxious thermal stimulation was repeated. The population of cortical nociceptive neurons with restricted receptive fields exhibited no adaptation in the response during noxious heat pulses of 47 and 50 degrees C. At higher temperatures the response often continued to increase during the stimulus. The other population of cortical nociceptive neurons was found to have restricted, low-threshold receptive fields on the contralateral hindlimb and, in addition, could be activated only by intense pinching or noxious thermal stimuli delivered on any portion of the body. The stimulus-response functions obtained from noxious thermal stimulation of the contralateral hindlimb were not different from cortical nociceptive neurons with small receptive fields. However, nociceptive neurons with large receptive fields exhibited a consistent adaptation during a noxious heat pulse of 47 and 50 degrees C. Based on the response characteristics of these two populations of cortical nociceptive neurons, we conclude that neurons with small receptive fields possess the ability to provide information about the localization, the intensity, and the temporal attributes of a noxious stimulus.4+.

Transient and prolonged effects of acetylcholine on responsiveness of cat somatosensory cortical neurons

1988 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 1253-1276 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Metherate ◽  
N. Tremblay ◽  
R. W. Dykes
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Fixed Dose ◽  
Cortical Layers ◽  
Afferent Inputs ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Layer I ◽  
Layer Vi

1. Two-hundred and seven neurons were examined for changes in their responsiveness during the iontophoretic administration of acetylcholine (ACh) in barbiturate-anesthetized cats. 2. The laminar locations of 78 cells were determined. Cholinoceptive neurons were found in all cortical layers and ranged from 50% of the cells tested in layer I to 78% in layer VI. 3. When the responsiveness of a neuron was measured by the magnitude of the discharge generated by a fixed dose of glutamate, 30 of 47 cases (64%) were potentiated, and 4 (8%) were depressed when ACh was administered during glutamate-induced excitation. 4. ACh administered during glutamate excitation was significantly more effective in altering neuronal responsiveness than was ACh administered alone (P less than 0.001). 5. When the responsiveness of a neuron was measured by the magnitude of the discharge generated by a standard somatic stimulus applied to the receptive field, 42 of 52 cases (81%) were potentiated during ACh application. This was again different from ACh treatment alone where only 4 of 27 tests (15%) resulted in subsequent enhancement of the response to somatic stimuli. 6. ACh generally increased the responsiveness of neurons with peripheral receptive fields and caused the appearance of a receptive field in some cells lacking one. 7. In many cases the changes in excitability, as measured by responses either to glutamate or to somatic stimulation, remained for prolonged time periods. When glutamate was used to test excitability, 34% (16 of 47) of the enhancements lasted more than 5 min. When somatic stimuli were used 29% (15 of 52) lasted more than 5 min. With both measures some neurons still displayed enhanced responses more than 1 h after the treatment with ACh. 8. ACh appears to act as a permissive agent that allows modification of the effectiveness with which previously existing afferent inputs drive somatosensory cortical neurons. 9. This mechanism to alter neuronal responsiveness has many of the characteristics necessary to account for the reorganization observed in somatosensory cortex following alterations in its afferent drive and may be related to some forms of learning and memory.

scholarly journals The physiological basis for the computation of direction selectivity in the Drosophila OFF pathway

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giordano Ramos-Traslosheros ◽  
Marion Silies
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Motion Computation ◽  
Biological Substrate ◽  
Field Organization ◽  
Receptive Field Organization ◽  
Neuronal Computation

In Drosophila, direction-selective neurons implement a mechanism of motion computation similar to cortical neurons, using contrast-opponent receptive fields with ON and OFF subunits. It is not clear how the presynaptic circuitry of direction-selective neurons in the OFF pathway supports this computation, because all major inputs are OFF-rectified neurons. Here, we reveal the biological substrate for motion computation in the OFF pathway. Three interneurons, Tm2, Tm9 and CT1, also provide information about ON stimuli to the OFF direction-selective neuron T5 across its receptive field, supporting a contrast-opponent receptive field organization. Consistent with its prominent role in motion detection, variability in Tm9 receptive field properties is passed on to T5, and calcium decrements in Tm9 in response to ON stimuli are maintained across behavioral states, while spatial tuning is sharpened by active behavior. Together, our work shows how a key neuronal computation is implemented by its constituent neuronal circuit elements to ensure direction selectivity.

scholarly journals Sensory experience in Development Balances excitation and Inhibition to stabilize Frequency Tuning in central Auditory neurons

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. JEN.S6833
Author(s):  
Kenjiro Seki ◽  
Troy Templeton ◽  
Liisa A. Tremere ◽  
Raphael Pinaud
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Auditory Neurons ◽  
Developmentally Regulated ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Central Auditory Neurons ◽  
Inhibitory Networks

The balance between excitation and inhibition is critical in shaping receptive field tuning properties in sensory neurons and, ultimately, in determining how sensory cues are extracted, transformed and interpreted by brain circuits. New findings suggest that developmentally-regulated, experience-dependent changes in intracortical inhibitory networks are key to defning receptive field tuning properties of auditory cortical neurons.

Afferent input to movement-related precentral neurones in conscious monkeys

1976 ◽  
Vol 194 (1116) ◽  
pp. 313-339 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pyramidal Tract ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Afferent Input ◽  
Peripheral Region ◽  
Joint Movement ◽  
Natural Stimulus ◽  
Natural Stimuli ◽  
Stimulation Of

Monkeys were trained to perform a stereotyped movement task, and to accept passive manipulation and natural stimulation of the limbs while remaining relaxed and quiet. All training, both of movement and for relaxation, was with food rewards. The effects of natural stimuli on 257 precentral neurones showing consistent modulations in discharge frequency during the performance of the movement task were investigated. Most precentral neurones had small, stable input zones located on the contralateral arm: 197 facilitatory and 17 inhibitory responses were obtained, while the remaining 43 cells were unaffected by the natural stimuli used. The most common natural stimulus capable of influencing precentral neurones was joint movement: 152 cells responded to joint movement, including 98 which only responded to movement at a single joint. Joint movement rather than joint position was the effective stimulus and none of these cells was influenced by palpation of muscles acting at the joint. The next most common natural stimulus capable of influencing precentral neurones was muscle palpation: 35 cells responded to a tap applied to a localized portion of the muscle belly, including 26 cells which also responded to movement of the joint at which the muscle acted. The direction of joint movement which influenced the cell was usually such as to stretch the muscle containing the receptors for the effective afferent input set up by tapping. The natural stimulus which influenced the smallest number of precentral neurones was tactile stimulation of the skin: 27 cells had cutaneous receptive fields, most of which were small ( < 5 cm 2 ) and confined to the hand. Included in the total sample were 51 pyramidal tract neurones. The behaviour of these was found to be similar to the unidentified neurones examined in the same animals with respect to their afferent input. However, there was a tendency for pyramidal tract neurones to be in receipt of a more convergent input than unidentified neurones in their vicinity. The majority of neurones recorded in close proximity to one another (within 500 μm or less) usually received their afferent input from the same peripheral region, but a significant proportion of such cells received inputs from different and remote peripheral zones. Hence the afferent input to the precentral motor cortex is not organized to provide independent and spatially segregated projections from particular peripheral sites only to limited and localized radial aggregations of neurones.

scholarly journals The physiological basis for contrast opponency in motion computation in Drosophila

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giordano Ramos-Traslosheros ◽  
Marion Silies
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Motion Computation ◽  
Biological Substrate ◽  
Field Organization ◽  
Receptive Field Organization ◽  
Neuronal Computation

AbstractIn Drosophila, direction-selective neurons implement a mechanism of motion computation similar to cortical neurons, using contrast-opponent receptive fields with ON and OFF subfields. It is not clear how the presynaptic circuitry of direction-selective neurons in the OFF pathway supports this computation if all major inputs are OFF-rectified neurons. Here, we reveal the biological substrate for motion computation in the OFF pathway. Three interneurons, Tm2, Tm9 and CT1, provide information about ON stimuli to the OFF direction-selective neuron T5 across its receptive field, supporting a contrast-opponent receptive field organization. Consistent with its prominent role in motion detection, variability in Tm9 receptive field properties transfers to T5, and calcium decrements in Tm9 in response to ON stimuli persist across behavioral states, while spatial tuning is sharpened by active behavior. Together, our work shows how a key neuronal computation is implemented by its constituent neuronal circuit elements to ensure direction selectivity.

scholarly journals Local Signals From Beyond the Receptive Fields of Striate Cortical Neurons

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 822-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Müller ◽  
Andrew B. Metha ◽  
John Krauskopf ◽  
Peter Lennie
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Image Representation ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Preferred Orientation ◽  
Orientation Tuning ◽  
Stimulus Space ◽  
Tuning Curves ◽  
Complex Cells

We examined in anesthetized macaque how the responses of a striate cortical neuron to patterns inside the receptive field were altered by surrounding patterns outside it. The changes in a neuron's response brought about by a surround are immediate and transient: they arise with the same latency as the response to a stimulus within the receptive field (this argues for a source locally in striate cortex) and become less effective as soon as 27 ms later. Surround signals appeared to exert their influence through divisive interaction (normalization) with those arising in the receptive field. Surrounding patterns presented at orientations slightly oblique to the preferred orientation consistently deformed orientation tuning curves of complex (but not simple) cells, repelling the preferred orientation but without decreasing the discriminability of the preferred grating and ones at slightly oblique orientations. By reducing responsivity and changing the tuning of complex cells locally in stimulus space, surrounding patterns reduce the correlations among responses of neurons to a particular stimulus, thus reducing the redundancy of image representation.

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