title: Mouse V1 population correlates of visual detection rely on heterogeneity within neuronal response patterns.
abstract: Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of the primary sensory cortex for the detection, discrimination, and awareness of visual stimuli, but it is unknown how neuronal populations in this area process detected and undetected stimuli differently. Critical differences may reside in the mean strength of responses to visual stimuli, as reflected in bulk signals detectable in functional magnetic resonance imaging, electro-encephalogram, or magnetoencephalography studies, or may be more subtly composed of differentiated activity of individual sensory neurons. Quantifying single-cell Ca(2+) responses to visual stimuli recorded with in vivo two-photon imaging, we found that visual detection correlates more strongly with population response heterogeneity rather than overall response strength. Moreover, neuronal populations showed consistencies in activation patterns across temporally spaced trials in association with hit responses, but not during nondetections. Contrary to models relying on temporally stable networks or bulk signaling, these results suggest that detection depends on transient differentiation in neuronal activity within cortical populations.
authors.affiliation: Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jorrit S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5621-090X
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Montijn
authors.affiliation: Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.|Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Pieter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Goltstein
authors.affiliation: Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.|Research Priority Program Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cyriel M A
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Pennartz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D051379:Mice; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: behavioral correlates; in vivo calcium imaging; mouse; multidimensional; neuroscience; population coding; primary visual cortex; visual detection