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The transmission of high-frequency temporal information across brain regions is critical to perception, but the mechanisms underlying such transmission remain unclear. Long-range projection patterns across brain areas are often comprised of paired feedforward excitation followed closely by delayed inhibition, including the thalamic triad synapse, thalamic projections to cortex, and projections within hippocampus. Previous studies have shown that these joint projections produce a shortened period of depolarization, sharpening the timing window over which the postsynaptic neuron can fire. Here we show that these projections can facilitate the transmission of high-frequency computations even at frequencies that are highly filtered by neuronal membranes. This temporal facilitation occurred over a range of synaptic parameter values, including variations in synaptic strength, synaptic time constants, short-term synaptic depression, and the delay between excitation and inhibition. Further, these projections can coordinate computations across multiple network levels, even amid ongoing local activity. We suggest that paired feedforward excitation and inhibition provides a hybrid signal – carrying both a value and a clock-like trigger – to allow circuits to be responsive to input whenever it arrives.

Human visual surface perception has neural correlates in early visual cortex, but the role of feedback during surface segmentation in human early visual cortex remains unknown. Feedback projections preferentially enter superficial and deep anatomical layers, which provides a hypothesis for the cortical depth distribution of fMRI activity related to feedback. Using ultra-high field fMRI, we report a depth distribution of activation in line with feedback during the (illusory) perception of surface motion. Our results fit with a signal re-entering in superficial depths of V1, followed by a feedforward sweep of the re-entered information through V2 and V3. The magnitude and sign of the BOLD response strongly depended on the presence of texture in the background, and was additionally modulated by the presence of illusory motion perception compatible with feedback. In summary, the present study demonstrates the potential of depth-resolved fMRI in tackling biomechanical questions on perception.

Poster presentation: We present a non-parametric and computationally-efficient method named NeuroXidence (see http://www.NeuroXidence.com ) that detects coordinated firing within a group of two or more neurons and tests whether the observed level of coordinated firing is significantly different from that expected by chance. NeuroXidence [1] considers the full auto-structure of the data, including the changes in the rate responses and the history dependencies in the spiking activity. We demonstrate that NeuroXidence can identify epochs with significant spike synchronisation even if these coincide with strong and fast rate modulations. We also show, that the method accounts for trial-by-trial variability in the rate responses and their latencies, and that it can be applied to short data windows lasting only tens of milliseconds. Based on simulated data we compare the performance of NeuroXidence with the UE-method [2,3] and the cross-correlation analysis. An application of NeuroXidence to 42 single-units (SU) recorded in area 17 of an anesthetized cat revealed significant coincident events of high complexities, involving firing of up to 8 SUs simultaneously (5 ms window). The results were highly consistent with those obtained by traditional pair-wise measures based on cross-correlation: Neuronal synchrony was strongest in stimulation conditions in which the orientation of the sinusoidal grating matched the preferred orientation of most of the SUs included in the analysis, and was the weakest when the neurons were stimulated least optimally. Interestingly, events of higher complexities showed stronger stimulus-specific modulation than pair-wise interactions. The results suggest strong evidence for stimulus specific synchronous firing and, therefore, support the temporal coding hypothesis in visual cortex. ...

Pattern vision deprivation (BD) can induce permanent deficits in global motion perception. The impact of timing and duration of BD on the maturation of the central and peripheral visual field representations in cat primary visual areas 17 and 18 remains unknown. We compared early BD, from eye opening for 2, 4, or 6 months, with late onset BD, after 2 months of normal vision, using the expression pattern of the visually driven activity reporter gene zif268 as readout. Decreasing zif268 mRNA levels between months 2 and 4 characterized the normal maturation of the (supra)granular layers of the central and peripheral visual field representations in areas 17 and 18. In general, all BD conditions had higher than normal zif268 levels. In area 17, early BD induced a delayed decrease, beginning later in peripheral than in central area 17. In contrast, the decrease occurred between months 2 and 4 throughout area 18. Lack of pattern vision stimulation during the first 4 months of life therefore has a different impact on the development of areas 17 and 18. A high zif268 expression level at a time when normal vision is restored seems to predict the capacity of a visual area to compensate for BD. ispartof: Cerebral Cortex vol:25 issue:10 pages:3515-3526 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Deprivation of patterned visual information, as in early onset congenital cataract patients, results in a severe impairment in global motion perception. Previously we reported a delayed maturation of the peripheral visual field representation in primary visual area 17, based on a 2-D DIGE screen for protein expression changes and in situ hybridization for the activity reporter gene ZIF268. To corroborate these findings we here explore the binocular pattern deprivation (BD)-regulated expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a well-described neurotrophin precipitously regulated by early visual experience. To assess the timing of maturation-related BDNF expression we compared the central and the peripheral visual field representations of area 17 of 1, 2, 4 and 6-month-old and adult cats reared under normal visual conditions. To scrutinize the outcome of BD, four different deprivation strategies were compared, including early onset BD from birth and lasting for 2, 4 or 6 months (2BD, 4BD, 6BD), and late onset BD for 2 months upon 2 months of normal vision (2N2BD), as animal models of congenital and delayed onset cataract. During normal cortical development the BDNF transcript levels, measured by quantitative RT-PCR, remained stable. Higher BDNF mRNA levels were found in central area 17 of 2BD and 6BD animals compared to age-matched controls. In central area 17, the high BDNF mRNA levels at the end of the BD period may activate a mechanism by which plastic processes, halted by deprivation, may begin. We here confirm that the peripheral visual field representation of area 17 matures slower than its central counterpart. Only in central area 17 normal visual input upon BD could upregulate BDNF mRNA which may lead to a fast activation of local plastic adaptations.