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Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences

Time-locked sequences of neural activity can be found throughout the vertebrate forebrain in various species and behavioral contexts. From “time cells” in the hippocampus of rodents to cortical activity controlling movement, temporal sequence generation is integral to many forms of learned behavior....

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Autores principales: Markowitz, Jeffrey E., Liberti, William A., Guitchounts, Grigori, Velho, Tarciso, Lois, Carlos, Gardner, Timothy J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454690/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26039895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002158
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author Markowitz, Jeffrey E.
Liberti, William A.
Guitchounts, Grigori
Velho, Tarciso
Lois, Carlos
Gardner, Timothy J.
author_facet Markowitz, Jeffrey E.
Liberti, William A.
Guitchounts, Grigori
Velho, Tarciso
Lois, Carlos
Gardner, Timothy J.
author_sort Markowitz, Jeffrey E.
collection PubMed
description Time-locked sequences of neural activity can be found throughout the vertebrate forebrain in various species and behavioral contexts. From “time cells” in the hippocampus of rodents to cortical activity controlling movement, temporal sequence generation is integral to many forms of learned behavior. However, the mechanisms underlying sequence generation are not well known. Here, we describe a spatial and temporal organization of the songbird premotor cortical microcircuit that supports sparse sequences of neural activity. Multi-channel electrophysiology and calcium imaging reveal that neural activity in premotor cortex is correlated with a length scale of 100 µm. Within this length scale, basal-ganglia–projecting excitatory neurons, on average, fire at a specific phase of a local 30 Hz network rhythm. These results show that premotor cortical activity is inhomogeneous in time and space, and that a mesoscopic dynamical pattern underlies the generation of the neural sequences controlling song.
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spelling pubmed-44546902015-06-09 Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences Markowitz, Jeffrey E. Liberti, William A. Guitchounts, Grigori Velho, Tarciso Lois, Carlos Gardner, Timothy J. PLoS Biol Research Article Time-locked sequences of neural activity can be found throughout the vertebrate forebrain in various species and behavioral contexts. From “time cells” in the hippocampus of rodents to cortical activity controlling movement, temporal sequence generation is integral to many forms of learned behavior. However, the mechanisms underlying sequence generation are not well known. Here, we describe a spatial and temporal organization of the songbird premotor cortical microcircuit that supports sparse sequences of neural activity. Multi-channel electrophysiology and calcium imaging reveal that neural activity in premotor cortex is correlated with a length scale of 100 µm. Within this length scale, basal-ganglia–projecting excitatory neurons, on average, fire at a specific phase of a local 30 Hz network rhythm. These results show that premotor cortical activity is inhomogeneous in time and space, and that a mesoscopic dynamical pattern underlies the generation of the neural sequences controlling song. Public Library of Science 2015-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4454690/ /pubmed/26039895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002158 Text en © 2015 Markowitz et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Markowitz, Jeffrey E.
Liberti, William A.
Guitchounts, Grigori
Velho, Tarciso
Lois, Carlos
Gardner, Timothy J.
Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title_full Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title_fullStr Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title_full_unstemmed Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title_short Mesoscopic Patterns of Neural Activity Support Songbird Cortical Sequences
title_sort mesoscopic patterns of neural activity support songbird cortical sequences
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454690/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26039895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002158
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