title: Contextual Modulation is Related to Efficiency in a Spiking Network Model of Visual Cortex.
abstract: In the visual cortex, stimuli outside the classical receptive field (CRF) modulate the neural firing rate, without driving the neuron by themselves. In the primary visual cortex (V1), such contextual modulation can be parametrized with an area summation function (ASF): increasing stimulus size causes first an increase and then a decrease of firing rate before reaching an asymptote. Earlier work has reported increase of sparseness when CRF stimulation is extended to its surroundings. However, there has been no clear connection between the ASF and network efficiency. Here we aimed to investigate possible link between ASF and network efficiency. In this study, we simulated the responses of a biomimetic spiking neural network model of the visual cortex to a set of natural images. We varied the network parameters, and compared the V1 excitatory neuron spike responses to the corresponding responses predicted from earlier single neuron data from primate visual cortex. The network efficiency was quantified with firing rate (which has direct association to neural energy consumption), entropy per spike and population sparseness. All three measures together provided a clear association between the network efficiency and the ASF. The association was clear when varying the horizontal connectivity within V1, which influenced both the efficiency and the distance to ASF, DAS. Given the limitations of our biophysical model, this association is qualitative, but nevertheless suggests that an ASF-like receptive field structure can cause efficient population response.
authors.affiliation: Brain Research Unit, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto UniversityEspoo, Finland; Aalto Neuroimaging, AMI Centre, Aalto UniversityEspoo, Finland; Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University HospitalHelsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sharifian
authors.affiliation: Brain Research Unit, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto UniversityEspoo, Finland; Aalto Neuroimaging, AMI Centre, Aalto UniversityEspoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heikkinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Aalto UniversityEspoo, Finland; Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University Nova of LisbonLisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vigário
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Simo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vanni
keywords: V1; area summation; efficiency; excitation; inhibition; simulation; spiking network model
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