scholarly journals Role of Interneuron Diversity in the Cortical Microcircuit for Attention

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 2158-2182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calin I. Buia ◽  
Paul H. Tiesinga
Keyword(s):  
Firing Rate ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
Testable Hypothesis ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Feature Based

Receptive fields of neurons in cortical area V4 are large enough to fit multiple stimuli, making V4 the ideal place to study the effects of selective attention at the single-neuron level. Experiments have revealed evidence for stimulus competition and have characterized the effect thereon of spatial and feature-based attention. We developed a biophysical model with spiking neurons and conductance-based synapses. To account for the comprehensive set of experimental results, it was necessary to include in the model, in addition to regular spiking excitatory (E) cells, two types of interneurons: feedforward interneurons (FFI) and top-down interneurons (TDI). Feature-based attention was mediated by a projection of the TDI to the FFI, stimulus competition was mediated by a cross-columnar excitatory connection to the FFI, whereas spatial attention was mediated by an increase in activity of the feedforward inputs from cortical area V2. The model predicts that spatial attention increases the FFI firing rate, whereas feature-based attention decreases the FFI firing rate and increases the TDI firing rate. During strong stimulus competition, the E cells were synchronous in the beta frequency range (15–35 Hz), but with feature-based attention, they became synchronous in the gamma frequency range (35–50 Hz). We propose that the FFI correspond to fast-spiking, parvalbumin-positive basket cells and that the TDI correspond to cells with a double-bouquet morphology that are immunoreactive to calbindin or calretinin. Taken together, the model results provide an experimentally testable hypothesis for the behavior of two interneuron types under attentional modulation.

Dynamic shifts of visual receptive fields in cortical area MT by spatial attention

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1156-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thilo Womelsdorf ◽  
Katharina Anton-Erxleben ◽  
Florian Pieper ◽  
Stefan Treue
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Area Mt ◽  
Visual Receptive Fields

scholarly journals Rhythmic neural spiking and attentional sampling arising from cortical receptive field interactions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Kienitz ◽  
Joscha T. Schmiedt ◽  
Katharine A. Shapcott ◽  
Kleopatra Kouroupaki ◽  
Richard C. Saunders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
List Type ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Cortical Area

SummaryGrowing evidence suggests that distributed spatial attention may invoke theta (3-9 Hz) rhythmic sampling processes. The neuronal basis of such attentional sampling is however not fully understood. Here we show using array recordings in visual cortical area V4 of two awake macaques that presenting separate visual stimuli to the excitatory center and suppressive surround of neuronal receptive fields elicits rhythmic multi-unit activity (MUA) at 3-6 Hz. This neuronal rhythm did not depend on small fixational eye movements. In the context of a distributed spatial attention task, during which the monkeys detected a spatially and temporally uncertain target, reaction times (RT) exhibited similar rhythmic fluctuations. RTs were fast or slow depending on the target occurrence during high or low MUA, resulting in rhythmic MUA-RT cross-correlations at at theta frequencies. These findings suggest that theta-rhythmic neuronal activity arises from competitive receptive field interactions and that this rhythm may subserve attentional sampling.HighlightsCenter-surround interactions induce theta-rhythmic MUA of visual cortex neuronsThe MUA rhythm does not depend on small fixational eye movementsReaction time fluctuations lock to the neuronal rhythm under distributed attention

Transcranial alternating stimulation in a high gamma frequency range applied over V1 improves contrast perception but does not modulate spatial attention

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bence Laczó ◽  
Andrea Antal ◽  
Robert Niebergall ◽  
Stefan Treue ◽  
Walter Paulus
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Contrast Perception

scholarly journals In your phase: neural phase synchronisation underlies visual imagery of faces

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Canales-Johnson ◽  
Renzo C. Lanfranco ◽  
Juan Pablo Morales ◽  
David Martínez-Pernía ◽  
Joaquín Valdés ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Neural Connectivity ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Subjective Impression ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Gamma Range ◽  
Theta Frequency ◽  
Socially Relevant

AbstractMental imagery is the process through which we retrieve and recombine information from our memory to elicit the subjective impression of “seeing with the mind’s eye”. In the social domain, we imagine other individuals while recalling our encounters with them or modelling alternative social interactions in future. Many studies using imaging and neurophysiological techniques have shown several similarities in brain activity between visual imagery and visual perception, and have identified frontoparietal, occipital and temporal neural components of visual imagery. However, the neural connectivity between these regions during visual imagery of socially relevant stimuli has not been studied. Here we used electroencephalography to investigate neural connectivity and its dynamics between frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal electrodes during visual imagery of faces. We found that voluntary visual imagery of faces is associated with long-range phase synchronisation in the gamma frequency range between frontoparietal electrode pairs and between occipitoparietal electrode pairs. In contrast, no effect of imagery was observed in the connectivity between occipitotemporal electrode pairs. Gamma range synchronisation between occipitoparietal electrode pairs predicted subjective ratings of the contour definition of imagined faces. Furthermore, we found that visual imagery of faces is associated with an increase of short-range frontal synchronisation in the theta frequency range, which temporally preceded the long-range increase in the gamma synchronisation. We speculate that the local frontal synchrony in the theta frequency range might be associated with an effortful top-down mnemonic reactivation of faces. In contrast, the long-range connectivity in the gamma frequency range along the fronto-parieto-occipital axis might be related to the endogenous binding and subjective clarity of facial visual features.

A role for the corpus callosum in visual area V4 of the macaque

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desimone ◽  
Jeffrey Moran ◽  
Stanley J. Schein ◽  
Mortimer Mishkin
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Corpus Callosum ◽  
Anterior Commissure ◽  
Color Constancy ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Optic Tract ◽  
Complete Suppression ◽  
Central Visual Field ◽  
Field Representation ◽  
Area V4

AbstractThe classically defined receptive fields of V4 cells are confined almost entirely to the contralateral visual field. However, these receptive fields are often surrounded by large, silent suppressive regions, and stimulating the surrounds can cause a complete suppression of response to a simultaneously presented stimulus within the receptive field. We investigated whether the suppressive surrounds might extend across the midline into the ipsilateral visual field and, if so, whether the surrounds were dependent on the corpus callosum, which has a widespread distribution in V4. We found that the surrounds of more than half of the cells tested in the central visual field representation of V4 crossed into the ipsilateral visual field, with some extending up to at least 16 deg from the vertical meridian. Much of this suppression from the ipsilateral field was mediated by the corpus callosum, as section of the callosum dramatically reduced both the strength and extent of the surrounds. There remained, however, some residual suppression that was not further reduced by addition of an anterior commissure lesion. Because the residual ipsilateral suppression was similar in magnitude and extent to that found following section of the optic tract contralateral to the V4 recording, we concluded that it was retinal in origin. Using the same techniques employed in V4, we also mapped the ipsilateral extent of surrounds in the foveal representation of VI in an intact monkey. Results were very similar to those in V4 following commissural or contralateral tract sections. The findings suggest that V4 is a central site for long-range interactions both within and across the two visual hemifields. Taken with previous work, the results are consistent with the notion that the large suppressive surrounds of V4 neurons contribute to the neural mechanisms of color constancy and figure-ground separation.

scholarly journals Properties of precise firing synchrony between synaptically coupled cortical interneurons depend on their mode of coupling

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 624-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang Hu ◽  
Ariel Agmon
Keyword(s):  
Firing Rate ◽  
Electrical Coupling ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Inhibitory Synapses ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Rate Dependent ◽  
Cortical Interneurons

Precise spike synchrony has been widely reported in the central nervous system, but its functional role in encoding, processing, and transmitting information is yet unresolved. Of particular interest is firing synchrony between inhibitory cortical interneurons, thought to drive various cortical rhythms such as gamma oscillations, the hallmark of cognitive states. Precise synchrony can arise between two interneurons connected electrically, through gap junctions, chemically, through fast inhibitory synapses, or dually, through both types of connections, but the properties of synchrony generated by these different modes of connectivity have never been compared in the same data set. In the present study we recorded in vitro from 152 homotypic pairs of two major subtypes of mouse neocortical interneurons: parvalbumin-containing, fast-spiking (FS) interneurons and somatostatin-containing (SOM) interneurons. We tested firing synchrony when the two neurons were driven to fire by long, depolarizing current steps and used a novel synchrony index to quantify the strength of synchrony, its temporal precision, and its dependence on firing rate. We found that SOM-SOM synchrony, driven solely by electrical coupling, was less precise than FS-FS synchrony, driven by inhibitory or dual coupling. Unlike SOM-SOM synchrony, FS-FS synchrony was strongly firing rate dependent and was not evident at the prototypical 40-Hz gamma frequency. Computer simulations reproduced these differences in synchrony without assuming any differences in intrinsic properties, suggesting that the mode of coupling is more important than the interneuron subtype. Our results provide novel insights into the mechanisms and properties of interneuron synchrony and point out important caveats in current models of cortical oscillations.

scholarly journals Untangling cortico-striatal connectivity and cross-frequency coupling in L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jovana Belic ◽  
Per Halje ◽  
Ulrike Richter ◽  
Per Petersson ◽  
Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski
Keyword(s):  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Freely Behaving ◽  
Beta Frequency ◽  
Cross Frequency Coupling

We simultaneously recorded local field potentials in the primary motor cortex and sensorimotor striatum in awake, freely behaving, 6-OHDA lesioned hemi-parkinsonian rats in order to study the features directly related to pathological states such as parkinsonian state and levodopa-induced dyskinesia. We analysed the spectral characteristics of the obtained signals and observed that during dyskinesia the most prominent feature was a relative power increase in the high gamma frequency range at around 80 Hz, while for the parkinsonian state it was in the beta frequency range. Here we show that during both pathological states effective connectivity in terms of Granger causality is bidirectional with an accent on the striatal influence on the cortex. In the case of dyskinesia, we also found a high increase in effective connectivity at 80 Hz. In order to further understand the 80- Hz phenomenon, we performed cross-frequency analysis and observed characteristic patterns in the case of dyskinesia but not in the case of the parkinsonian state or the control state. We noted a large decrease in the modulation of the amplitude at 80 Hz by the phase of low frequency oscillations (up to ~10 Hz) across both structures in the case of dyskinesia. This may suggest a lack of coupling between the low frequency activity of the recorded network and the group of neurons active at ~80 Hz.

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