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Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish

Understanding how neural populations encode sensory information thereby leading to perception and behavior (i.e., the neural code) remains an important problem in neuroscience. When investigating the neural code, one must take into account the fact that neural activities are not independent but are...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hofmann, Volker, Chacron, Maurice J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5599069/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28863136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005716
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author Hofmann, Volker
Chacron, Maurice J.
author_facet Hofmann, Volker
Chacron, Maurice J.
author_sort Hofmann, Volker
collection PubMed
description Understanding how neural populations encode sensory information thereby leading to perception and behavior (i.e., the neural code) remains an important problem in neuroscience. When investigating the neural code, one must take into account the fact that neural activities are not independent but are actually correlated with one another. Such correlations are seen ubiquitously and have a strong impact on neural coding. Here we investigated how differences in the antagonistic center-surround receptive field (RF) organization across three parallel sensory maps influence correlations between the activities of electrosensory pyramidal neurons. Using a model based on known anatomical differences in receptive field center size and overlap, we initially predicted large differences in correlated activity across the maps. However, in vivo electrophysiological recordings showed that, contrary to modeling predictions, electrosensory pyramidal neurons across all three segments displayed nearly identical correlations. To explain this surprising result, we incorporated the effects of RF surround in our model. By systematically varying both the RF surround gain and size relative to that of the RF center, we found that multiple RF structures gave rise to similar levels of correlation. In particular, incorporating known physiological differences in RF structure between the three maps in our model gave rise to similar levels of correlation. Our results show that RF center overlap alone does not determine correlations which has important implications for understanding how RF structure influences correlated neural activity.
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spelling pubmed-55990692017-09-28 Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish Hofmann, Volker Chacron, Maurice J. PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Understanding how neural populations encode sensory information thereby leading to perception and behavior (i.e., the neural code) remains an important problem in neuroscience. When investigating the neural code, one must take into account the fact that neural activities are not independent but are actually correlated with one another. Such correlations are seen ubiquitously and have a strong impact on neural coding. Here we investigated how differences in the antagonistic center-surround receptive field (RF) organization across three parallel sensory maps influence correlations between the activities of electrosensory pyramidal neurons. Using a model based on known anatomical differences in receptive field center size and overlap, we initially predicted large differences in correlated activity across the maps. However, in vivo electrophysiological recordings showed that, contrary to modeling predictions, electrosensory pyramidal neurons across all three segments displayed nearly identical correlations. To explain this surprising result, we incorporated the effects of RF surround in our model. By systematically varying both the RF surround gain and size relative to that of the RF center, we found that multiple RF structures gave rise to similar levels of correlation. In particular, incorporating known physiological differences in RF structure between the three maps in our model gave rise to similar levels of correlation. Our results show that RF center overlap alone does not determine correlations which has important implications for understanding how RF structure influences correlated neural activity. Public Library of Science 2017-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5599069/ /pubmed/28863136 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005716 Text en © 2017 Hofmann, Chacron http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hofmann, Volker
Chacron, Maurice J.
Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title_full Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title_fullStr Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title_full_unstemmed Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title_short Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
title_sort differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5599069/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28863136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005716
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