scholarly journals Pulvinar influences parietal delay activity and information transmission between dorsal and ventral visual cortex in macaques

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri B. Saalmann ◽  
Ryan Ly ◽  
Mark A. Pinsk ◽  
Sabine Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Sustained Activity ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Cortical

AbstractThe fronto-parietal attention network represents attentional priorities and provides feedback about these priorities to sensory cortical areas. Sustained spiking activity in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) carries such prioritized information, but how this activity is sustained in the absence of feedforward sensory information, and how it is transmitted to the ventral visual cortical pathway, is unclear. We hypothesized that the higher-order thalamic nucleus, the pulvinar, which is connected with both the PPC and ventral visual cortical pathway, influences information transmission within and between these cortical regions. To test this, we simultaneously recorded from the pulvinar, lateral intraparietal area (LIP) and visual cortical area V4 in macaques performing a selective attention task. Here we show that LIP influenced V4 during the delay period of the attention task, and that the pulvinar regulated LIP-V4 information exchange. Pulvino-cortical effects were consistent with the pulvinar supporting sustained activity in LIP. Taken together, these results suggest that pulvinar regulation of cortical functional connectivity generalizes to dorsal and ventral visual cortical pathways. Further, the pulvinar’s role in sustaining parietal delay activity during selective attention implicates the pulvinar in other cognitive processes supported by such delay activity, including decision-making, categorization and oculomotor functions.Significance StatementA network of areas on the brain’s surface, in frontal and parietal cortex, allocate attention to behaviorally relevant information around us. Such areas in parietal cortex show sustained activity during maintained attention and transmit behaviorally relevant information to visual cortical areas to enhance sensory processing of attended objects. How this activity is sustained and how it is transmitted to visual areas supporting object perception is unclear. We show that a subcortical area, the pulvinar in the thalamus, helps sustain activity in the cortex and regulates the information transmitted between the fronto-parietal attention network and visual cortex. This suggests that the thalamus, classically considered as a simple relay for sensory information, contributes to higher-level cognitive functions.

Neural Mechanisms of Spatial Attention in the Visual Thalamus

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri B. Saalmann ◽  
Sabine Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Thalamic Nucleus ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
First Order ◽  
Visual Thalamus ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Visual Cortical

Neural mechanisms of selective attention route behaviourally relevant information through brain networks for detailed processing. These attention mechanisms are classically viewed as being solely implemented in the cortex, relegating the thalamus to a passive relay of sensory information. However, this passive view of the thalamus is being revised in light of recent studies supporting an important role for the thalamus in selective attention. Evidence suggests that the first-order thalamic nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus, regulates the visual information transmitted from the retina to visual cortex, while the higher-order thalamic nucleus, the pulvinar, regulates information transmission between visual cortical areas, according to attentional demands. This chapter discusses how modulation of thalamic responses, switching the response mode of thalamic neurons, and changes in neural synchrony across thalamo-cortical networks contribute to selective attention.

scholarly journals Routing information flow by separate neural synchrony frequencies allows for “functionally labeled lines” in higher primate cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (25) ◽  
pp. 12506-12515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Bagher Khamechian ◽  
Vladislav Kozyrev ◽  
Stefan Treue ◽  
Moein Esghaei ◽  
Mohammad Reza Daliri
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Spike Timing ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Ventral Pathway ◽  
Visual Cortical

Efficient transfer of sensory information to higher (motor or associative) areas in primate visual cortical areas is crucial for transforming sensory input into behavioral actions. Dynamically increasing the level of coordination between single neurons has been suggested as an important contributor to this efficiency. We propose that differences between the functional coordination in different visual pathways might be used to unambiguously identify the source of input to the higher areas, ensuring a proper routing of the information flow. Here we determined the level of coordination between neurons in area MT in macaque visual cortex in a visual attention task via the strength of synchronization between the neurons’ spike timing relative to the phase of oscillatory activities in local field potentials. In contrast to reports on the ventral visual pathway, we observed the synchrony of spikes only in the range of high gamma (180 to 220 Hz), rather than gamma (40 to 70 Hz) (as reported previously) to predict the animal’s reaction speed. This supports a mechanistic role of the phase of high-gamma oscillatory activity in dynamically modulating the efficiency of neuronal information transfer. In addition, for inputs to higher cortical areas converging from the dorsal and ventral pathway, the distinct frequency bands of these inputs can be leveraged to preserve the identity of the input source. In this way source-specific oscillatory activity in primate cortex can serve to establish and maintain “functionally labeled lines” for dynamically adjusting cortical information transfer and multiplexing converging sensory signals.

scholarly journals Characterization of Feedback Neurons in the High-Level Visual Cortical Areas That Project Directly to the Primary Visual Cortex in the Cat

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huijun Pan ◽  
Shen Zhang ◽  
Deng Pan ◽  
Zheng Ye ◽  
Hao Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Area 21A ◽  
High Level ◽  
Visual Cortical

Previous studies indicate that top-down influence plays a critical role in visual information processing and perceptual detection. However, the substrate that carries top-down influence remains poorly understood. Using a combined technique of retrograde neuronal tracing and immunofluorescent double labeling, we characterized the distribution and cell type of feedback neurons in cat’s high-level visual cortical areas that send direct connections to the primary visual cortex (V1: area 17). Our results showed: (1) the high-level visual cortex of area 21a at the ventral stream and PMLS area at the dorsal stream have a similar proportion of feedback neurons back projecting to the V1 area, (2) the distribution of feedback neurons in the higher-order visual area 21a and PMLS was significantly denser than in the intermediate visual cortex of area 19 and 18, (3) feedback neurons in all observed high-level visual cortex were found in layer II–III, IV, V, and VI, with a higher proportion in layer II–III, V, and VI than in layer IV, and (4) most feedback neurons were CaMKII-positive excitatory neurons, and few of them were identified as inhibitory GABAergic neurons. These results may argue against the segregation of ventral and dorsal streams during visual information processing, and support “reverse hierarchy theory” or interactive model proposing that recurrent connections between V1 and higher-order visual areas constitute the functional circuits that mediate visual perception. Also, the corticocortical feedback neurons from high-level visual cortical areas to the V1 area are mostly excitatory in nature.

scholarly journals Attention enhances category representations across the brain with strengthened residual correlations to ventral temporal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle S Keller ◽  
Akshay V Jagadeesh ◽  
Lior Bugatus ◽  
Leanne M Williams ◽  
Kalanit Grill-Spector
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Category Information ◽  
Ventral Temporal Cortex ◽  
Residual Correlations ◽  
The Brain

How does attention enhance neural representations of goal-relevant stimuli while suppressing representations of ignored stimuli across regions of the brain? While prior studies have shown that attention enhances visual responses, we lack a cohesive understanding of how selective attention modulates visual representations across the brain. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants performed a selective attention task on superimposed stimuli from multiple categories and used a data-driven approach to test how attention affects both decodability of category information and residual correlations (after regressing out stimulus-driven variance) with category-selective regions of ventral temporal cortex (VTC). Our data reveal three main findings. First, when two objects are simultaneously viewed, the category of the attended object can be decoded more readily than the category of the ignored object, with the greatest attentional enhancements observed in occipital and temporal lobes. Second, after accounting for the response to the stimulus, the correlation in the residual brain activity between a cortical region and a category-selective region of VTC was elevated when that region's preferred category was attended vs. ignored, and more so in the right occipital, parietal, and frontal cortices. Third, we found that the stronger the residual correlations between a given region of cortex and VTC, the better visual category information could be decoded from that region. These findings suggest that heightened residual correlations by selective attention may reflect the sharing of information between sensory regions and higher-order cortical regions to provide attentional enhancement of goal-relevant information.

scholarly journals Biological variation in the sizes, shapes and locations of visual cortical areas in the mouse

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Waters ◽  
Eric Lee ◽  
Nathalie Gaudreault ◽  
Fiona Griffin ◽  
Jerome Lecoq ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Biological Variation ◽  
Measurement Noise ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Retinotopic Maps ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Cortical Visual Areas ◽  
Processing Of Visual Information

ABSTRACTVisual cortex is organized into discrete sub-regions or areas that are arranged into a hierarchy and serve different functions in the processing of visual information. In our previous work, we noted that retinotopic maps of cortical visual areas differed between mice, but did not quantify these differences or determine the relative contributions of biological variation and measurement noise. Here we quantify the biological variation in the size, shape and locations of 11 visual areas in the mouse. We find that there is substantial biological variation in the sizes of visual areas, with some visual areas varying in size by two-fold across the population of mice.

scholarly journals Auditory selective attention under working memory load

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Bayramova ◽  
Enrico Toffalini ◽  
Mario Bonato ◽  
Massimo Grassi
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Auditory Selective Attention ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Four Levels

Abstract Can cognitive load enhance concentration on task-relevant information and help filter out distractors? Most of the prior research in the area of selective attention has focused on visual attention or cross-modal distraction and has yielded controversial results. Here, we studied whether working memory load can facilitate selective attention when both target and distractor stimuli are auditory. We used a letter n-back task with four levels of working memory load and two levels of distraction: congruent and incongruent distractors. This combination of updating and inhibition tasks allowed us to manipulate working memory load within the selective attention task. Participants sat in front of three loudspeakers and were asked to attend to the letter presented from the central loudspeaker while ignoring that presented from the flanking ones (spoken by a different person), which could be the same letter as the central one (congruent) or a different (incongruent) letter. Their task was to respond whether or not the central letter matched the letter presented n (0, 1, 2, or 3) trials back. Distraction was measured in terms of the difference in reaction time and accuracy on trials with incongruent versus congruent flankers. We found reduced interference from incongruent flankers in 2- and 3-back conditions compared to 0- and 1-back conditions, whereby higher working memory load almost negated the effect of incongruent flankers. These results suggest that high load on verbal working memory can facilitate inhibition of distractors in the auditory domain rather than make it more difficult as sometimes claimed.

scholarly journals Organizing principles of pulvino-cortical connectivity in humans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Arcaro ◽  
Mark A. Pinsk ◽  
Janice Chen ◽  
Sabine Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Organizing Principles ◽  
Human Specific

ABSTRACTThe pulvinar regulates information transmission to cortex and communication between cortical areas. The way the pulvinar interacts with cortex is governed by its intrinsic organization. Here, we show using fMRI that the human pulvinar is functionally heterogeneous, broadly separated into dorsal and ventral subdivisions based on characterization of response properties and functional connectivity with cortex. These differences mirrored the organization of the dorsal and ventral streams of visual cortex. The ventral subdivision of the pulvinar was functionally coupled with occipital and temporal cortex. The dorsal subdivision of the pulvinar was functionally coupled with frontal and parietal cortex. The dorsal subdivision was also coupled with the human-specific tool network and to the default mode network. The spatial organization of pulvino-cortical coupling reflected both the functional similarities and anatomical distances between cortical areas. Together, the human pulvinar appears to represent the entire visual system and the principles that govern its organization, though in a spatially compressed form.Author ContributionsMA, MP, and JC collected data; MA and JC analyzed the data; MA, MP, JC, and SK wrote the paper.

scholarly journals Feature-based gating of cortical information transmission

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Baloni Ray ◽  
Daniel Kaping ◽  
Stefan Treue
Keyword(s):  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Feature Similarity ◽  
Visual Cortical Area ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Visual Cortical

In highly developed visual systems, spatial- and feature-based attentional modulation interact to prioritize relevant information and suppress irrelevant details. We investigated the specific role and integration of these two attentional mechanisms in visual cortical area MST of rhesus monkeys. We show that spatial attention acts as a gate for information processing by providing unimpeded high-gain pass-through processing for all sensory information from attended visual locations. Feature-based attentional enhancement does not only show the known dependency on a match between the attended feature and a given cells selectivity, but surprisingly is restricted to those features for which a given cell contributes to perception. This necessitates a refinement of the feature-similarity gain model of attention and documents highly optimized attentional gating of sensory information for cortical processing. This gating is shaped by neuronal sensory preferences, behavioral relevance, and the causal link to perception of neurons that process this visual input.

scholarly journals First spikes in visual cortex enable perceptual discrimination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arbora Resulaj ◽  
Sarah Ruediger ◽  
Shawn R. Olsen ◽  
Massimo Scanziani
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Perceptual Discrimination ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Direct Measurements ◽  
Sequential Activation ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Threshold Duration ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractVisually guided perceptual decisions involve the sequential activation of a hierarchy of cortical areas. It has been hypothesized that a brief time window of activity in each area is sufficient to enable the decision but direct measurements of this time window are lacking. To address this question, we develop a visual discrimination task in mice that depends on visual cortex and in which we precisely control the time window of visual cortical activity as the animal performs the task at different levels of difficulty. We show that threshold duration of activity in visual cortex enabling perceptual discrimination is between 40 and 80 milliseconds. During this time window the vast majority of neurons discriminating the stimulus fire one or no spikes and less than 16% fire more than two. This result establishes that the firing of the first visually evoked spikes in visual cortex is sufficient to enable a perceptual decision.

Expert-Novice Differences in an Applied Selective Attention Task

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Abernethy ◽  
David G. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Landing Position ◽  
Advance Information ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Characteristics ◽  
Expert Novice ◽  
Stroke Sequence

Two experiments are described comparing the temporal and spatial characteristics of the anticipatory cues used by expert (n=20) and novice (n=35) racquet sport players. In both experiments the perceptual display available in badminton was simulated using film, and display characteristics were selectively manipulated either by varying the duration of the stroke sequence that was visible (Experiment 1) or by selectively masking specific display features (Experiment 2). The subjects* task in all cases was to predict the landing position of the stroke they were viewing. It was found in Experiment 1 that experts were able to pick up more relevant information from earlier display cues than could novices, and this appeared in Experiment 2 to be due to their ability to extract advance information from the playing side arm, in addition to the racquet itself. These differences, it was concluded, were congruent with predictions that could be derived from traditional information-processing notions related to recognition of display redundancy. The roles of different anticipatory cue sources in the independent predictions of stroke speed and direction were also examined, and it was concluded that directional judgments were more dependent on cue specificity than were depth judgments.

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