Local intracortical circuitry not only for feature binding but also for rapid neuronal responses |
| |
Authors: | Yusuke Totoki Takami Matsuo Meihong Zheng Osamu Hoshino |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Architecture and Mechatronics, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan;(2) Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, China;(3) Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Ibaraki University, 4-12-1 Nakanarusawa, Hitachi, Ibaraki 316-8511, Japan; |
| |
Abstract: | Neurons of primary sensory cortices are known to have specific responsiveness to elemental features. To express more complex
sensory attributes that are embedded in objects or events, the brain must integrate them. This is referred to as feature binding
and is reflected in correlated neuronal activity. We investigated how local intracortical circuitry modulates ongoing-spontaneous
neuronal activity, which would have a great impact on the processing of subsequent combinatorial input, namely, on the correlating
(binding) of relevant features. We simulated a functional, minimal neural network model of primary visual cortex, in which
lateral excitatory connections were made in a diffusive manner between cell assemblies that function as orientation columns.
A pair of bars oriented at specific angles, expressing a visual corner, was applied to the network. The local intracortical
circuitry contributed not only to inducing correlated neuronal activation and thus to binding the paired features but also
to making membrane potentials oscillate at firing-subthreshold during an ongoing-spontaneous time period. This led to accelerating
the reaction speed of principal cells to the input. If the lateral excitatory connections were selectively (instead of “diffusively”)
made, hyperpolarization in ongoing membrane potential occurred and thus the reaction speed was decelerated. We suggest that
the local intracortical circuitry with diffusive connections between cell assemblies might endow the network with an ongoing
subthreshold neuronal state, by which it can send the information about combinations of elemental features rapidly to higher
cortical stages for their full and precise analyses. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|