scholarly journals Stimulus-specific plasticity in human visual gamma-band activity and functional connectivity

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J Stauch ◽  
Alina Peter ◽  
Heike Schuler ◽  
Pascal Fries

Under natural conditions, the visual system often sees a given input repeatedly. This provides an opportunity to optimize processing of the repeated stimuli. Stimulus repetition has been shown to strongly modulate neuronal-gamma band synchronization, yet crucial questions remained open. Here we used magnetoencephalography in 30 human subjects and find that gamma decreases across ≈10 repetitions and then increases across further repetitions, revealing plastic changes of the activated neuronal circuits. Crucially, increases induced by one stimulus did not affect responses to other stimuli, demonstrating stimulus specificity. Changes partially persisted when the inducing stimulus was repeated after 25 minutes of intervening stimuli. They were strongest in early visual cortex and increased interareal feedforward influences. Our results suggest that early visual cortex gamma synchronization enables adaptive neuronal processing of recurring stimuli. These and previously reported changes might be due to an interaction of oscillatory dynamics with established synaptic plasticity mechanisms.

Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Stauch ◽  
Alina Peter ◽  
Heike Schuler ◽  
Pascal Fries

Stimulus repetition reduces neuronal responses in sensory areas, while leaving perceptual fidelity and behavioral performance intact. Visual gamma-band activity decreases for few stimulus repetitions in humans, yet increases for many repetitions in macaques. Using magnetoencephalography, we confirmed that gamma decreases for the first few stimulus repetitions, and, as in macaques, increases for further repetitions. Crucially, this increase did not transfer to other stimuli, suggesting that the circuit changes were specific to the inducing stimulus. The increase partially persisted when the inducing stimulus was repeated after 25 minutes of intervening stimuli. The increase was most pronounced in early visual areas, and entailed an increased feedforward influence onto higher areas. Our results suggest that early visual cortex gamma synchronization subserves adaptative neuronal processing of recurring stimuli. We propose that drive-dependent gamma phase shifting combines with spike timing-dependent synaptic plasticity to reduce overall responses, while maintaining the impact on higher areas and behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (15) ◽  
pp. 4117-4127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tzvetan Popov ◽  
Sabine Kastner ◽  
Ole Jensen

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances A. Maratos ◽  
Carl Senior ◽  
Karin Mogg ◽  
Brendan P. Bradley ◽  
Gina Rippon

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (40) ◽  
pp. 13873-13880a ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Xing ◽  
Y. Shen ◽  
S. Burns ◽  
C.-I. Yeh ◽  
R. Shapley ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Pellegrini ◽  
David J Hawellek ◽  
Anna-Antonia Pape ◽  
Joerg F Hipp ◽  
Markus Siegel

Abstract Synchronized neuronal population activity in the gamma-frequency range (>30 Hz) correlates with the bottom-up drive of various visual features. It has been hypothesized that gamma-band synchronization enhances the gain of neuronal representations, yet evidence remains sparse. We tested a critical prediction of the gain hypothesis, which is that features that drive synchronized gamma-band activity interact super-linearly. To test this prediction, we employed whole-head magnetencephalography in human subjects and investigated if the strength of visual motion (motion coherence) and luminance contrast interact in driving gamma-band activity in visual cortex. We found that gamma-band activity (64–128 Hz) monotonically increased with coherence and contrast, while lower frequency activity (8–32 Hz) decreased with both features. Furthermore, as predicted for a gain mechanism, we found a multiplicative interaction between motion coherence and contrast in their joint drive of gamma-band activity. The lower frequency activity did not show such an interaction. Our findings provide evidence that gamma-band activity acts as a cortical gain mechanism that nonlinearly combines the bottom-up drive of different visual features.


2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 753-753
Author(s):  
D. Xing ◽  
C.-I. Yeh ◽  
P. Williams ◽  
A. Henrie ◽  
R. Shapley

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey M Ziemba ◽  
Richard K Perez ◽  
Julia Pai ◽  
Luke E Hallum ◽  
Christopher Shooner ◽  
...  

AbstractMost single units recorded from macaque V2 respond with higher firing rates to synthetic texture images containing “naturalistic” higher-order statistics than to spectrally matched “noise” images lacking these statistics. In contrast, few single units in V1 show this property. We explored how the strength and dynamics of response vary across the different layers of visual cortex by recording multiunit and gamma band activity evoked by brief presentations of naturalistic and noise images in V1 and V2 of anesthetized macaque monkeys. As previously reported, recordings in V2 showed consistently stronger responses to naturalistic texture than to spectrally matched noise. In contrast to single unit recordings, V1 multiunit activity showed some preference for images with naturalistic statistics, and in gamma band activity this preference was comparable across V1 and V2. Sensitivity to naturalistic image structure was strongest in the supragranular and infragranular layers of V1, but weak in granular layers, suggesting that it might reflect feedback from V2. Response timing was consistent with this idea. Visual responses appeared first in V1, followed by V2. Sensitivity to naturalistic texture emerged first in V2, followed by the supragranular and infragranular layers of V1, and finally in the granular layers of V1. Our results demonstrate laminar differences in the encoding of higher-order statistics of natural texture, and suggest that this sensitivity first arises in V2 and is fed back to modulate activity in V1.Significance StatementThe circuit mechanisms responsible for visual representations of intermediate complexity are largely unknown. We used a well-validated set of synthetic texture stimuli to probe the temporal and laminar profile of sensitivity to the higher-order statistical structure of natural images. We found that this sensitivity emerges first and most strongly in V2 but soon after in V1. However, sensitivity in V1 is higher in the laminae (extragranular) and recording modalities (local field potential) most likely affected by V2 connections, suggesting a feedback origin. Our results show how sensitivity to naturalistic image structure emerges across time and circuitry in the early visual cortex.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tchemodanov Natalia ◽  
Gazit Tomer ◽  
Yamin Hagar ◽  
Raz Gal ◽  
Jackont Gilan ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Pellegrini ◽  
David J Hawellek ◽  
Anna-Antonia Pape ◽  
Joerg F Hipp ◽  
Markus Siegel

AbstractSynchronized neuronal population activity in the gamma-frequency range (> 30 Hz) correlates with the bottom-up drive of various visual features. It has been hypothesized that gamma-band synchronization enhances the gain of neuronal representations, yet evidence remains sparse. We tested a critical prediction of the gain hypothesis, which is that features that drive synchronized gamma-band activity interact super-linearly. To test this prediction, we employed whole-head magnetencephalography (MEG) in human subjects and investigated if the strength of visual motion (motion coherence) and luminance contrast interact in driving gamma-band activity in visual cortex. We found that gamma-band activity (64 to 128 Hz) monotonically increased with coherence and contrast while lower frequency activity (8 to 32 Hz) decreased with both features. Furthermore, as predicted for a gain mechanism, we found a multiplicative interaction between motion coherence and contrast in their joint drive of gamma-band activity. The lower frequency activity did not show such an interaction. Our findings provide evidence, that gamma-band activity acts as a cortical gain mechanism that nonlinearly combines the bottom-up drive of different visual features in support of visually guided behavior.


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