scholarly journals Nonlinear mixed selectivity supports reliable neural computation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jeffrey Johnston ◽  
Stephanie E. Palmer ◽  
David J. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Neural Computation ◽  
Metabolic Energy ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Important Benefit ◽  
Transmission Reliability ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Linear Decoding ◽  
The Brain

SummaryNeuronal activity in the brain is variable, yet both perception and behavior are generally reliable. How does the brain achieve this? Here, we show that the conjunctive coding of multiple stimulus features, commonly known as nonlinear mixed selectivity, may be used by the brain to support reliable information transmission using unreliable neurons. Nonlinear mixed selectivity (NMS) has been observed widely across the brain, from primary sensory to decision-making to motor areas. Representations of stimulus features are nearly always mixed together, rather than represented separately or with only additive (linear) mixing, as in pure selectivity. NMS has been previously shown to support flexible linear decoding for complex behavioral tasks. Here, we show that NMS has another important benefit: it requires as little as half the metabolic energy required by pure selectivity to achieve the same level of transmission reliability. This benefit holds for sensory, motor, and more abstract, cognitive representations. Further, we show experimental evidence that NMS exists in the brain even when it does not enable behaviorally useful linear decoding. This suggests that NMS may be a general coding scheme exploited by the brain for reliable and efficient neural computation.

scholarly journals Why sensory neurons are tuned to multiple stimulus features

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew V. Macellaio ◽  
Bing Liu ◽  
Jeffrey M. Beck ◽  
Leslie C. Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Neurons ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Computational Advantage ◽  
Information Advantage ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
The Brain

Many sensory neurons encode information about more than one stimulus feature. Multidimensional tuning increases ambiguity in stimulus-response relationships, but we find that it also offers an unexpected computational advantage, allowing the brain to better reconstruct sensory stimuli. From the responses of sensory neurons, populations, and sensory-driven movement behavior, more information can be recovered about a stimulus vector than about its individual components. We term this coding advantage “stimulus synergy” and show that it is distinct from other coding synergies, arising from inseparability of the response-conditioned stimulus distribution along individual stimulus dimensions. From extracellular recordings in motion sensitive cortex and measurements of pursuit eye movements, we demonstrate that stimulus synergy in cortical populations is preserved downstream in the precision of pursuit, and that a common decoding model predicts the level of synergy in pursuit behavior. This suggests that the brain exploits the information advantage afforded by multidimensional sensory tuning.

scholarly journals Interspike intervals within retinal spike bursts combinatorially encode multiple stimulus features

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Ishii ◽  
Toshihiko Hosoya
Keyword(s):  
Ganglion Cell ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Interspike Intervals ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Single Burst ◽  
Spike Number ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Spike Patterns ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Spike Bursts

AbstractNeurons in various regions of the brain generate spike bursts. While the number of spikes within a burst has been shown to carry information, information coding by interspike intervals (ISIs) is less well understood. In particular, a burst with k spikes has k−1 intraburst ISIs, and these k−1 ISIs could theoretically encode k−1 independent values. In this study, we demonstrate that such combinatorial coding occurs for retinal bursts. By recording ganglion cell spikes from isolated salamander retinae, we found that intraburst ISIs encode oscillatory light sequences that are much faster than the light intensity modulation encoded by the number of spikes. When a burst has three spikes, the two intraburst ISIs combinatorially encode the amplitude and phase of the oscillatory sequence. Analysis of trial-to-trial variability suggested that intraburst ISIs are regulated by two independent mechanisms responding to orthogonal oscillatory components, one of which is common to bursts with different number of spikes. Therefore, the retina encodes multiple stimulus features by exploiting all degrees of freedom of burst spike patterns, i.e., the spike number and multiple intraburst ISIs.Author SummaryNeurons in various regions of the brain generate spike bursts. Bursts are typically composed of a few spikes generated within dozens of milliseconds, and individual bursts are separated by much longer periods of silence (∼hundreds of milliseconds). Recent evidence indicates that the number of spikes in a burst, the interspike intervals (ISIs), and the overall duration of a burst, as well as the timing of burst onset, encode information. However, it remains unknown whether multiple ISIs within a single burst encode multiple independent information contents. Here we demonstrate that such combinatorial ISI coding occurs for spike bursts in the retina. We recorded ganglion cell spikes from isolated salamander retinae stimulated with computer-generated movies. Visual response analyses indicated that multiple ISIs within a single burst combinatorially encode the phase and amplitude of oscillatory light sequences, which are different from the stimulus feature encoded by the spike number. The result demonstrates that the retina encodes multiple stimulus features by exploiting all degrees of freedom of burst spike patterns, i.e., the spike number and multiple intraburst ISIs. Because synaptic transmission in the visual system is highly sensitive to ISIs, the combinatorial ISI coding must have a major impact on visual information processing.

Visual Categorization and the Primate Prefrontal Cortex: Neurophysiology and Behavior

2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 929-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Freedman ◽  
Maximilian Riesenhuber ◽  
Tomaso Poggio ◽  
Earl K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Circuitry ◽  
Psychophysical Testing ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Stimulus Shape

The ability to group stimuli into meaningful categories is a fundamental cognitive process. To explore its neuronal basis, we trained monkeys to categorize computer-generated stimuli as “cats” and “dogs.” A morphing system was used to systematically vary stimulus shape and precisely define a category boundary. Psychophysical testing and analysis of eye movements suggest that the monkeys categorized the stimuli by attending to multiple stimulus features. Neuronal activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex reflected the category of visual stimuli and changed with learning when a monkey was retrained with the same stimuli assigned to new categories. Further, many neurons showed activity that appeared to reflect the monkey's decision about whether two stimuli were from the same category or not. These results suggest that the lateral prefrontal cortex is an important part of the neuronal circuitry underlying category learning and category-based behaviors.

scholarly journals Interspike intervals within retinal spike bursts combinatorially encode multiple stimulus features

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e1007726
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Ishii ◽  
Toshihiko Hosoya
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Analysis ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Information Coding ◽  
Interspike Intervals ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Spike Number ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Spike Patterns ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Spike Bursts

Neurons in various regions of the brain generate spike bursts. While the number of spikes within a burst has been shown to carry information, information coding by interspike intervals (ISIs) is less well understood. In particular, a burst with k spikes has k−1 intraburst ISIs, and these k−1 ISIs could theoretically encode k−1 independent values. In this study, we demonstrate that such combinatorial coding occurs for retinal bursts. By recording ganglion cell spikes from isolated salamander retinae, we found that intraburst ISIs encode oscillatory light sequences that are much faster than the light intensity modulation encoded by the number of spikes. When a burst has three spikes, the two intraburst ISIs combinatorially encode the amplitude and phase of the oscillatory sequence. Analysis of trial-to-trial variability suggested that intraburst ISIs are regulated by two independent mechanisms responding to orthogonal oscillatory components, one of which is common to bursts with a different number of spikes. Therefore, the retina encodes multiple stimulus features by exploiting all degrees of freedom of burst spike patterns, i.e., the spike number and multiple intraburst ISIs.

Review of Self-regulation of the Brain and Behavior.

1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 999-999
Author(s):  
Gerald S. Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Individual Uniqueness in the Neonatal Functional Connectome

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiushi Wang ◽  
Yuehua Xu ◽  
Tengda Zhao ◽  
Zhilei Xu ◽  
Yong He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Identification Analysis ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The functional connectome is highly distinctive in adults and adolescents, underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior. However, it remains unknown whether the individual uniqueness of the functional connectome is present in neonates, who are far from mature. Here, we utilized the multiband resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 40 healthy neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project and a split-half analysis approach to characterize the uniqueness of the functional connectome in the neonatal brain. Through functional connectome-based individual identification analysis, we found that all the neonates were correctly identified, with the most discriminative regions predominantly confined to the higher-order cortices (e.g., prefrontal and parietal regions). The connectivities with the highest contributions to individual uniqueness were primarily located between different functional systems, and the short- (0–30 mm) and middle-range (30–60 mm) connectivities were more distinctive than the long-range (>60 mm) connectivities. Interestingly, we found that functional data with a scanning length longer than 3.5 min were able to capture the individual uniqueness in the functional connectome. Our results highlight that individual uniqueness is present in the functional connectome of neonates and provide insights into the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior later in life.

scholarly journals Crosstalk between Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy and Neurological Sciences in Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Lehel Balogh ◽  
Masaru Tanaka ◽  
Nóra Török ◽  
László Vécsei ◽  
Shigeru Taguchi
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Biological Treatment ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Neurological Damage ◽  
Mood And Anxiety Disorders ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.

scholarly journals Song competition changes the brain and behavior of a male songbird

2009 ◽  
Vol 212 (15) ◽  
pp. 2411-2418 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Sockman ◽  
K. G. Salvante ◽  
D. M. Racke ◽  
C. R. Campbell ◽  
B. A. Whitman
Keyword(s):  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain
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