scholarly journals Patterns of neural correlations in visual cortex vary with the number of objects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Young Jun ◽  
Douglas A. Ruff ◽  
Lily E. Kramer ◽  
Brittany Bowes ◽  
Surya T Tokdar ◽  
...  

AbstractHow the brain preserves information about more than one stimulus at a time remains poorly understood. We recently showed that when more than one stimulus is present, single neurons may fluctuate between coding one vs. the other(s) across some time period. A critical unanswered question is whether and how any such fluctuations are coordinated across the neural population. Here, we analyzed the spike count (“noise”) correlations observed between pairs of visual cortex (V1, V4) neurons under a variety of conditions. We report that when two separate grating stimuli are presented simultaneously, distinct distributions of positive and negative correlations emerge in V1, depending on whether the two neurons in the pair both respond more strongly to the same vs. different individual stimuli. Neural pairs that shared the same stimulus preference were more likely to show positively correlated spike count variability whereas those with different preferences were more likely to show negative correlations, suggesting that the V1 population response to one particular stimulus may be enhanced over the other on any given trial. Distinct distributions of spike count correlations based on tuning preferences were also seen in V4 for adjacent stimuli, but were not observed in either structure for single stimuli or when the two gratings were superimposed and formed a single plaid. The effects were most pronounced among pairs of neurons that showed fluctuating activity. These findings support the interpretation that the pattern of correlated fluctuations is related to the segregation of individual objects in the visual scene.Significance StatementHow the brain separates information about multiple objects despite overlap in the neurons responsive to each item is not well understood. Here we show that pairs of neurons in primate V1 and V4 show unique patterns of correlated firing when there are multiple objects in the visual scene. These patterns were most pronounced in neurons that showed fluctuating activity consistent with switching between encoding each object across time (i.e. time division multiplexing). Both strongly positive and strongly negative correlations were observed, depending on whether the neurons in the pair exhibited similar or different stimulus preferences. These patterns were absent when only one object was presented, suggesting that they may play a key role in preserving information about multiple items.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Kóbor ◽  
Karolina Janacsek ◽  
Petra Hermann ◽  
Zsofia Zavecz ◽  
Vera Varga ◽  
...  

Previous research recognized that humans could extract statistical regularities of the environment to automatically predict upcoming events. However, it has remained unexplored how the brain encodes the distribution of statistical regularities if it continuously changes. To investigate this question, we devised an fMRI paradigm where participants (N = 32) completed a visual four-choice reaction time (RT) task consisting of statistical regularities. Two types of blocks involving the same perceptual elements alternated with one another throughout the task: While the distribution of statistical regularities was predictable in one block type, it was unpredictable in the other. Participants were unaware of the presence of statistical regularities and of their changing distribution across the subsequent task blocks. Based on the RT results, although statistical regularities were processed similarly in both the predictable and unpredictable blocks, participants acquired less statistical knowledge in the unpredictable as compared with the predictable blocks. Whole-brain random-effects analyses showed increased activity in the early visual cortex and decreased activity in the precuneus for the predictable as compared with the unpredictable blocks. Therefore, the actual predictability of statistical regularities is likely to be represented already at the early stages of visual cortical processing. However, decreased precuneus activity suggests that these representations are imperfectly updated to track the multiple shifts in predictability throughout the task. The results also highlight that the processing of statistical regularities in a changing environment could be habitual.


Author(s):  
Norman Yujen Teng

Tye argues that visual mental images have their contents encoded in topographically organized regions of the visual cortex, which support depictive representations; therefore, visual mental images rely at least in part on depictive representations. This argument, I contend, does not support its conclusion. I propose that we divide the problem about the depictive nature of mental imagery into two parts: one concerns the format of image representation and the other the conditions by virtue of which a representation becomes a depictive representation. Regarding the first part of the question, I argue that there exists a topographic format in the brain but that does not imply that there exists a depictive format of image representation. My answer to the second part of the question is that one needs a content analysis of a certain sort of topographic representations in order to make sense of depictive mental representations, and a topographic representation becomes a depictive representation by virtue of its content rather than its form.


1968 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Ake Idahl ◽  
Bo Hellman

ABSTRACT The combination of enzymatic cycling and fluorometry was used for measuring glucose and glucose-6-phosphate in pancreatic β-cells from obese-hyperglycaemic mice. The glucose level of the β-cells corresponded to that of serum over a wide concentration range. In the exocrine pancreas, on the other hand, a significant barrier to glucose diffusion across the cell membranes was demonstrated. During 5 min of ischaemia, the glucose level remained practically unchanged in the β-cells while it increased in the liver and decreased in the brain. The observation that the pancreatic β-cells are characterized by a relatively low ratio of glucose-6-phosphate to glucose may be attributed to the presence of a specific glucose-6-phosphatase.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell Hausken ◽  
Mthuli Ncube

We consider revolutions and civil war involving an incumbent, a challenger, and the population. Revolutions are classified into eight outcomes. In four outcomes incumbent repression occurs (viewed as providing sub-threshold benefits such as public goods to the population). Accommodation occurs in the other four outcomes (benefits provision above a threshold). The incumbent and challenger fight each other. The incumbent may win and retain power or else lose, thereby causing standoff or coalition. In a standoff, which is costly, no one backs down and uncertainty exists about who is in power. In a coalition, which is less costly, the incumbent and challenger cooperate, compromise, and negotiate their differences. If the population successfully revolts against the incumbent, the challenger replaces the incumbent. Eighty-seven revolutions during 1961–2011, including the recent Arab spring revolutions, are classified into the eight outcomes. When repressive, the incumbent loses 46 revolutions, remains in power through 21 revolutions, and builds a coalition after 12 revolutions. When accommodative, the incumbent loses seven revolutions and builds a coalition after one revolution. The 87 revolutions are classified across geographic regions and by time-period.


Author(s):  
Walter Ott

Descartes’s treatment of perception in the Optics, though published before the Meditations, contains a distinct account of sensory experience. The end of the chapter suggests some reasons for this oddity, but that the two accounts are distinct is difficult to deny. Descartes in the present work topples the brain image from its throne. In its place, we have two mechanisms, one purely causal, the other inferential. Where the proper sensibles are concerned, the ordination of nature suffices to explain why a given sensation is triggered on the occasion of a given brain motion. The same is true with regard to the common sensibles. But on top of this purely causal story, Descartes re-introduces his doctrine of natural geometry.


1971 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Lende ◽  
Wolff M. Kirsch ◽  
Ralph Druckman

✓ Cortical removals which included precentral and postcentral facial representations resulted in relief of facial pain in two patients. Because of known failures following only postcentral (SmI) ablations, these operations were designed to eliminate also the cutaneous afferent projection to the precentral gyrus (MsI) and the second somatic sensory area (SmII). In one case burning pain developed after a stroke involving the brain stem and was not improved by total fifth nerve section; prompt relief followed corticectomy and lasted until death from heart disease 20 months later. In the other case persistent steady pain that developed after fifth rhizotomy for trigeminal neuralgia proved refractory to frontal lobotomy; relief after corticectomy was immediate and has lasted 14 months. Cortical localization was established by stimulation under local anesthesia. Each removal extended up to the border of the arm representation and down to the upper border of the insula. Such a resection necessarily included SmII, and in one case responses presumably from SmII were obtained before removal. The suggestions of Biemond (1956) and Poggio and Mountcastle (1960) that SmII might be concerned with pain sensibility may be pertinent in these cases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (04) ◽  
pp. 1650016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loukianos Spyrou ◽  
David Martín-Lopez ◽  
Antonio Valentín ◽  
Gonzalo Alarcón ◽  
Saeid Sanei

Interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) are transient neural electrical activities that occur in the brain of patients with epilepsy. A problem with the inspection of IEDs from the scalp electroencephalogram (sEEG) is that for a subset of epileptic patients, there are no visually discernible IEDs on the scalp, rendering the above procedures ineffective, both for detection purposes and algorithm evaluation. On the other hand, intracranially placed electrodes yield a much higher incidence of visible IEDs as compared to concurrent scalp electrodes. In this work, we utilize concurrent scalp and intracranial EEG (iEEG) from a group of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with low number of scalp-visible IEDs. The aim is to determine whether by considering the timing information of the IEDs from iEEG, the resulting concurrent sEEG contains enough information for the IEDs to be reliably distinguished from non-IED segments. We develop an automatic detection algorithm which is tested in a leave-subject-out fashion, where each test subject’s detection algorithm is based on the other patients’ data. The algorithm obtained a [Formula: see text] accuracy in recognizing scalp IED from non-IED segments with [Formula: see text] accuracy when trained and tested on the same subject. Also, it was able to identify nonscalp-visible IED events for most patients with a low number of false positive detections. Our results represent a proof of concept that IED information for TLE patients is contained in scalp EEG even if they are not visually identifiable and also that between subject differences in the IED topology and shape are small enough such that a generic algorithm can be used.


1917 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carroll G. Bull

Streptococci cultivated from the tonsils of thirty-two cases of poliomyelitis were used to inoculate various laboratory animals. In no case was a condition induced resembling poliomyelitis clinically or pathologically in guinea pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, or monkeys. On the other hand, a considerable percentage of the rabbits and a smaller percentage of some of the other animals developed lesions due to streptococci. These lesions consisted of meningitis, meningo-encephalitis, abscess of the brain, arthritis, tenosynovitis, myositis, abscess of the kidney, endocarditis, pericarditis, and neuritis. No distinction in the character or frequency of the lesions could be determined between the streptococci derived from poliomyelitic patients and from other sources. Streptococci isolated from the poliomyelitic brain and spinal cord of monkeys which succumbed to inoculation with the filtered virus failed to induce in monkeys any paralysis or the characteristic histological changes of poliomyelitis. These streptococci are regarded as secondary bacterial invaders of the nervous organs. Monkeys which have recovered from infection with streptococci derived from cases of poliomyelitis are not protected from infection with the filtered virus, and their blood does not neutralize the filtered virus in vitro. We have failed to detect any etiologic or pathologic relationship between streptococci and epidemic poliomyelitis in man or true experimental poliomyelitis in the monkey.


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