Microstimulation reveals limits in detecting different signals from a local cortical region.
Behavioral performance depends on the activity of neurons in sensory cortex, but little is known about the brain's capacity to access specific neuronal signals to guide behavior. Even the individual sensory neurons that are most sensitive to a relevant stimulus are only weakly correlated with behavior, suggesting that behavioral decisions are based on the combined activity of groups of neurons with sensitivities well matched to task demands. To explore how flexibly different patterns of activity can be accessed from a given cortical region, we trained animals to detect electrical microstimulation of local V1 sites. By allowing the animals to become expert at the detection of microstimulation of specific V1 sites that corresponded to particular retinotopic locations, we could measure the effects of that training on the ability of those sites to support the detection of visual stimuli. Training to detect electrical activation caused a large, reversible, retinotopically localized impairment of thresholds for detecting visual stimuli. Retraining on visual detection restored normal thresholds and in turn impaired thresholds for detecting microstimulation. These results suggest that there are substantial limits to the types of signals for which a local cortical region can be simultaneously optimized.
Ni
Amy M
AM
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Maunsell
John H R
JH
D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
J Neurophysiol. 2005 Nov;94(5):3443-50
16079194
Exp Brain Res. 2003 Jan;148(2):233-7
12520412
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jun 21;102(25):9080-5
15956204
Curr Biol. 2007 May 15;17(10):862-7
17462895
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 May 20;105(20):7315-20
18477698
Annu Rev Psychol. 1998;49:585-612
9496632
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2003 Mar;4(3):203-18
12612633
Percept Psychophys. 1983 Feb;33(2):113-20
6844102
Med Biol Eng Comput. 1990 May;28(3):257-9
2377008
Nat Neurosci. 2009 May;12(5):655-63
19377473
J Neurosci. 1988 Jun;8(6):2201-11
3385495
Neurology. 2000 Feb 22;54(4):849-54
10690975
Neuron. 2009 Aug 27;63(4):508-22
19709632
Nature. 1998 Jan 8;391(6663):134-5
9428760
Nat Neurosci. 2000 Mar;3(3):264-9
10700259
J Neurophysiol. 2005 Jan;93(1):1-19
15371496
J Neurosci. 1992 Dec;12(12):4745-65
1464765
Annu Rev Neurosci. 1998;21:227-77
9530497
Nature. 1993 Sep 16;365(6443):250-2
8371779
J Neurophysiol. 2007 Aug;98(2):559-76
17567774
Neuron. 2008 Oct 23;60(2):367-77
18957227
Cereb Cortex. 1994 May-Jun;4(3):247-59
8075530
Vision Res. 1984;24(5):429-48
6740964
Nature. 2004 Oct 14;431(7010):775-81
15483598
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Mar 31;106(13):5389-93
19276119
J Neurosci. 2007 Jul 18;27(29):7619-30
17634356
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001 Jan;2(1):33-42
11253357
Science. 1974 Feb 1;183(4123):440-4
4808973