title: Endogenous sequential cortical activity evoked by visual stimuli.
abstract: Although the functional properties of individual neurons in primary visual cortex have been studied intensely, little is known about how neuronal groups could encode changing visual stimuli using temporal activity patterns. To explore this, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to record the activity of neuronal populations in primary visual cortex of awake mice in the presence and absence of visual stimulation. Multidimensional analysis of the network activity allowed us to identify neuronal ensembles defined as groups of cells firing in synchrony. These synchronous groups of neurons were themselves activated in sequential temporal patterns, which repeated at much higher proportions than chance and were triggered by specific visual stimuli such as natural visual scenes. Interestingly, sequential patterns were also present in recordings of spontaneous activity without any sensory stimulation and were accompanied by precise firing sequences at the single-cell level. Moreover, intrinsic dynamics could be used to predict the occurrence of future neuronal ensembles. Our data demonstrate that visual stimuli recruit similar sequential patterns to the ones observed spontaneously, consistent with the hypothesis that already existing Hebbian cell assemblies firing in predefined temporal sequences could be the microcircuit substrate that encodes visual percepts changing in time.
authors.affiliation: Neurotechnology Center, Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 lc2998@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carrillo-Reid
authors.affiliation: Neurotechnology Center, Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: Jae-Eun Kang
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Neurotechnology Center, Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: Jordan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hamm
authors.affiliation: Neurotechnology Center, Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: Neurotechnology Center, Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yuste
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000235:genetics; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000235:genetics; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010320:Parvalbumins; D013004:Somatostatin; D002118:Calcium
keywords: graph theory; in vivo calcium imaging; multidimensional population vectors; neuronal ensembles; primary visual cortex; two-photon microscopy