title: Synchronous activity in cat visual cortex encodes collinear and cocircular contours.
abstract: We explored how contour information in primary visual cortex might be embedded in the simultaneous activity of multiple cells recorded with a 100-electrode array. Synchronous activity in cat visual cortex was more selective and predictable in discriminating between drifting grating and concentric ring stimuli than changes in firing rate. Synchrony was found even between cells with wholly different orientation preferences when their receptive fields were circularly aligned, and membership in synchronous groups was orientation and curvature dependent. The existence of synchrony between cocircular cells reinforces its role as a general mechanism for contour integration and shape detection as predicted by association field concepts. Our data suggest that cortical synchrony results from common and synchronous input from earlier visual areas and that it could serve to shape extrastriate response selectivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennesse, USA. samondjm@cnbc.cmu.edu
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Samonds
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Melanie R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Bonds
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology