title: Adaptation to visual stimulation modifies the burst firing property of V1 neurons.
abstract: The mean firing rate of visual cortical neurons is reduced after prolonged visual stimulation, but the underlying process by which this occurs as well as the biological significance of this phenomenon remains unknown. Computational neuroscience studies indicate that high-frequency bursts in stimulus-driven responses can be transmitted across synapses more reliably than isolated spikes, and thus may carry accurate stimulus-related information. Our research examined whether or not adaptation affects the burst firing property of visual cortical neurons by examining changes in the burst firing changes of V1 neurons during adaptation to the preferred visual stimulus. The results show that adaptation to prolonged visual stimulation significantly decreased burst frequency (bursts/s) and burst length (spikes/burst), but increased burst duration and the interspike interval within bursts. These results suggest that the adaptation of V1 neurons to visual stimulation may result in a decrease of feedforward response gain but an increase of functional activities from lateral and/or feedback connections, which could lead to a reduction in the effectiveness of adapted neurons in transmitting information to its driven neurons.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China. tmhua@mail.ahnu.edu.cn; liangzhen@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Rui-Long
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Tian-Miao
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Min-Min
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Xi
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology
keywords: Burst firing; Cat; Neurons; Primary visual cortex; Visual adaptation