Cross-correlations between three units in cat primary auditory cortex.
Here we use a modification of the Joint-Peri-Stimulus-Time histogram (JPSTH) to investigate triple correlations between cat auditory cortex neurons. The modified procedure allowed the decomposition of the xy-pair correlation into a part that is due to the correlation of the x and y units with the trigger unit, and a remaining 'pair correlation'. We analyzed 16 sets of 15-minute duration stationary spontaneous recordings in primary auditory cortex (AI) with between 11 and 14 electrodes from 2 arrays of 8 electrodes each that provided spontaneous firing rates above 0.22 sp/s and for which reliable frequency-tuning curves could be obtained and the characteristic frequency (CF) was estimated. Thus we evaluated 11,282 conditional cross-correlation functions. The predictor for the conditional cross-correlation, calculated on the assumption that the trigger unit had no effect on the xy-pair correlation but using the same fraction of xy spikes, was equal to the conventional pair-wise correlation function between units xy. The conditional correlation of the xy-pair due to correlation of the x and/or y unit with the trigger unit decreased with the geometric mean distance of the xy pair to the trigger unit, but was independent of the pair cross-correlation coefficient. The conditional pair correlation coefficient was estimated at 78% of the measured pair correlation coefficient. Assuming a geometric decreasing effect of activities of units on other electrodes on the conditional correlation, we estimated the potential contribution of a large number of contributing units on the measured pair correlation at 35-50 of that correlation. This suggests that conventionally measured pair correlations in auditory cortex under ketamine anesthesia overestimate the 'true pair correlation', likely resulting from massive common input, by potentially up to a factor 2.
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Electronic address: eggermon@ucalgary.ca.
Jos J
JJ
Eggermont
Raymundo
R
Munguia
Gregory
G
Shaw
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats; D004566:Electrodes; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology
AI; CF; JPSTH; Joint-Peri-Stimulus-Time Histogram, Joint-Peri-Spike-Time Histogram; MSU; PST; SD; characteristic frequency; multiple single unit; post stimulus time, post spike time; primary auditory cortex; standard deviation