Feature Detection in Visual Cortex during Different Functional States

• Published in: Frontiers in computational neuroscience Vol. 11; p. 21
• Main Authors: Esir, Pavel, Simonov, Alexander, Tsodyks, Misha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 20.04.2017; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Attention; Cortex (somatosensory); Depolarization; feature detection; Firing rate; Information processing; Neural networks; Neuromodulation; Neurons; Neuroscience; Neurosciences; Neurotransmitter release; rate model; ring model; Synaptic depression; synaptic plasticity; Visual cortex; Visual perception; Russia; feature detection; ring model; synaptic plasticity; visual cortex; rate model
• ISSN: 1662-5188; 1662-5188
• DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2017.00021

Cortical activity exhibits distinct characteristics in different functional states. In awake behaving animals it shows less synchrony, while in rest or sleeping state cortical activity is most synchronous. Previous studies showed that switching between functional states can change the efficiency of flowing sensory information. Switching between functional states can be triggered by releasing neuromodulators which affect neurotransmitter release probability and depolarization of cortical neurons. In this work we focus on studying primary visual area V1, by using firing rate ring model with short-term synaptic depression (STD). We show that reconstruction of visual features from V1 activity depends on the functional state, with best precision achieved at the state with intermediate release probability. We suggest that this regime corresponds to the state of maximal visual attention.