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Eysel UT, Jancke D. Induction of excitatory brain state governs plastic functional changes in visual cortical topology. Brain Struct Funct 2024; 229:531-547. [PMID: 38041743 PMCID: PMC10978694 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02730-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
Adult visual plasticity underlying local remodeling of the cortical circuitry in vivo appears to be associated with a spatiotemporal pattern of strongly increased spontaneous and evoked activity of populations of cells. Here we review and discuss pioneering work by us and others about principles of plasticity in the adult visual cortex, starting with our study which showed that a confined lesion in the cat retina causes increased excitability in the affected region in the primary visual cortex accompanied by fine-tuned restructuring of neuronal function. The underlying remodeling processes was further visualized with voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging that allowed a direct tracking of retinal lesion-induced reorganization across horizontal cortical circuitries. Nowadays, application of noninvasive stimulation methods pursues the idea further of increased cortical excitability along with decreased inhibition as key factors for the induction of adult cortical plasticity. We used high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), for the first time in combination with VSD optical imaging, and provided evidence that TMS-amplified excitability across large pools of neurons forms the basis for noninvasively targeting reorganization of orientation maps in the visual cortex. Our review has been compiled on the basis of these four own studies, which we discuss in the context of historical developments in the field of visual cortical plasticity and the current state of the literature. Overall, we suggest markers of LTP-like cortical changes at mesoscopic population level as a main driving force for the induction of visual plasticity in the adult. Elevations in excitability that predispose towards cortical plasticity are most likely a common property of all cortical modalities. Thus, interventions that increase cortical excitability are a promising starting point to drive perceptual and potentially motor learning in therapeutic applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulf T Eysel
- Department of Neurophysiology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Dirk Jancke
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany.
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2
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Jancke D, Herlitze S, Kringelbach ML, Deco G. Bridging the gap between single receptor type activity and whole-brain dynamics. FEBS J 2021; 289:2067-2084. [PMID: 33797854 DOI: 10.1111/febs.15855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
What is the effect of activating a single modulatory neuronal receptor type on entire brain network dynamics? Can such effect be isolated at all? These are important questions because characterizing elementary neuronal processes that influence network activity across the given anatomical backbone is fundamental to guide theories of brain function. Here, we introduce the concept of the cortical 'receptome' taking into account the distribution and densities of expression of different modulatory receptor types across the brain's anatomical connectivity matrix. By modelling whole-brain dynamics in silico, we suggest a bidirectional coupling between modulatory neurotransmission and neuronal connectivity hardware exemplified by the impact of single serotonergic (5-HT) receptor types on cortical dynamics. As experimental support of this concept, we show how optogenetic tools enable specific activation of a single 5-HT receptor type across the cortex as well as in vivo measurement of its distinct effects on cortical processing. Altogether, we demonstrate how the structural neuronal connectivity backbone and its modulation by a single neurotransmitter system allow access to a rich repertoire of different brain states that are fundamental for flexible behaviour. We further propose that irregular receptor expression patterns-genetically predisposed or acquired during a lifetime-may predispose for neuropsychiatric disorders like addiction, depression and anxiety along with distinct changes in brain state. Our long-term vision is that such diseases could be treated through rationally targeted therapeutic interventions of high specificity to eventually recover natural transitions of brain states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Jancke
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.,International Graduate School of Neuroscience (IGSN), Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
| | - Stefan Herlitze
- Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
| | - Morten L Kringelbach
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.,Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.,Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.,Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Gustavo Deco
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain.,Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia
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3
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Dinse HR. Perceptual Learning: Sharing and Keeping Learned Improvements within a Category. Curr Biol 2019; 29:R280-R282. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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4
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Helfrich RF, Knepper H, Nolte G, Sengelmann M, König P, Schneider TR, Engel AK. Spectral fingerprints of large-scale cortical dynamics during ambiguous motion perception. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 37:4099-4111. [PMID: 27347668 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2015] [Revised: 06/13/2016] [Accepted: 06/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Ambiguous stimuli have been widely used to study the neuronal correlates of consciousness. Recently, it has been suggested that conscious perception might arise from the dynamic interplay of functionally specialized but widely distributed cortical areas. While previous research mainly focused on phase coupling as a correlate of cortical communication, more recent findings indicated that additional coupling modes might coexist and possibly subserve distinct cortical functions. Here, we studied two coupling modes, namely phase and envelope coupling, which might differ in their origins, putative functions and dynamics. Therefore, we recorded 128-channel EEG while participants performed a bistable motion task and utilized state-of-the-art source-space connectivity analysis techniques to study the functional relevance of different coupling modes for cortical communication. Our results indicate that gamma-band phase coupling in extrastriate visual cortex might mediate the integration of visual tokens into a moving stimulus during ambiguous visual stimulation. Furthermore, our results suggest that long-range fronto-occipital gamma-band envelope coupling sustains the horizontal percept during ambiguous motion perception. Additionally, our results support the idea that local parieto-occipital alpha-band phase coupling controls the inter-hemispheric information transfer. These findings provide correlative evidence for the notion that synchronized oscillatory brain activity reflects the processing of sensory input as well as the information integration across several spatiotemporal scales. The results indicate that distinct coupling modes are involved in different cortical computations and that the rich spatiotemporal correlation structure of the brain might constitute the functional architecture for cortical processing and specific multi-site communication. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4099-4111, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randolph F Helfrich
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany. .,Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California.
| | - Hannah Knepper
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany
| | - Guido Nolte
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany
| | - Malte Sengelmann
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany
| | - Peter König
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany.,Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49069, Germany
| | - Till R Schneider
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany
| | - Andreas K Engel
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, 20246, Germany
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5
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Jancke D. Catching the voltage gradient-asymmetric boost of cortical spread generates motion signals across visual cortex: a brief review with special thanks to Amiram Grinvald. NEUROPHOTONICS 2017; 4:031206. [PMID: 28217713 PMCID: PMC5301132 DOI: 10.1117/1.nph.4.3.031206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2016] [Accepted: 01/12/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Wide-field voltage imaging is unique in its capability to capture snapshots of activity-across the full gradient of average changes in membrane potentials from subthreshold to suprathreshold levels-of hundreds of thousands of superficial cortical neurons that are simultaneously active. Here, I highlight two examples where voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) was exploited to track gradual space-time changes of activity within milliseconds across several millimeters of cortex at submillimeter resolution: the line-motion condition, measured in Amiram Grinvald's Laboratory more than 10 years ago and-coming full circle running VSDI in my laboratory-another motion-inducing condition, in which two neighboring stimuli counterchange luminance simultaneously. In both examples, cortical spread is asymmetrically boosted, creating suprathreshold activity drawn out over primary visual cortex. These rapidly propagating waves may integrate brain signals that encode motion independent of direction-selective circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Jancke
- Ruhr University Bochum, Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Bochum, Germany
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6
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Roland PE, Bonde LH, Forsberg LE, Harvey MA. Breaking the Excitation-Inhibition Balance Makes the Cortical Network's Space-Time Dynamics Distinguish Simple Visual Scenes. Front Syst Neurosci 2017; 11:14. [PMID: 28377701 PMCID: PMC5360108 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2017.00014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2016] [Accepted: 03/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain dynamics are often taken to be temporal dynamics of spiking and membrane potentials in a balanced network. Almost all evidence for a balanced network comes from recordings of cell bodies of few single neurons, neglecting more than 99% of the cortical network. We examined the space-time dynamics of excitation and inhibition simultaneously in dendrites and axons over four visual areas of ferrets exposed to visual scenes with stationary and moving objects. The visual stimuli broke the tight balance between excitation and inhibition such that the network exhibited longer episodes of net excitation subsequently balanced by net inhibition, in contrast to a balanced network. Locally in all four areas the amount of net inhibition matched the amount of net excitation with a delay of 125 ms. The space-time dynamics of excitation-inhibition evolved to reduce the complexity of neuron interactions over the whole network to a flow on a low-(3)-dimensional manifold within 80 ms. In contrast to the pure temporal dynamics, the low dimensional flow evolved to distinguish the simple visual scenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Per E Roland
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Lars H Bonde
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Lars E Forsberg
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Michael A Harvey
- Department of Physiology, University of Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland
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Pigarev IN, Levichkina EV. Absolute Depth Sensitivity in Cat Primary Visual Cortex under Natural Viewing Conditions. Front Syst Neurosci 2016; 10:66. [PMID: 27547179 PMCID: PMC4974279 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2016.00066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2015] [Accepted: 07/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mechanisms of 3D perception, investigated in many laboratories, have defined depth either relative to the fixation plane or to other objects in the visual scene. It is obvious that for efficient perception of the 3D world, additional mechanisms of depth constancy could operate in the visual system to provide information about absolute distance. Neurons with properties reflecting some features of depth constancy have been described in the parietal and extrastriate occipital cortical areas. It has also been shown that, for some neurons in the visual area V1, responses to stimuli of constant angular size differ at close and remote distances. The present study was designed to investigate whether, in natural free gaze viewing conditions, neurons tuned to absolute depths can be found in the primary visual cortex (area V1). Single-unit extracellular activity was recorded from the visual cortex of waking cats sitting on a trolley in front of a large screen. The trolley was slowly approaching the visual scene, which consisted of stationary sinusoidal gratings of optimal orientation rear-projected over the whole surface of the screen. Each neuron was tested with two gratings, with spatial frequency of one grating being twice as high as that of the other. Assuming that a cell is tuned to a spatial frequency, its maximum response to the grating with a spatial frequency twice as high should be shifted to a distance half way closer to the screen in order to attain the same size of retinal projection. For hypothetical neurons selective to absolute depth, location of the maximum response should remain at the same distance irrespective of the type of stimulus. It was found that about 20% of neurons in our experimental paradigm demonstrated sensitivity to particular distances independently of the spatial frequencies of the gratings. We interpret these findings as an indication of the use of absolute depth information in the primary visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan N Pigarev
- Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute), Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, Russia
| | - Ekaterina V Levichkina
- Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute), Russian Academy of SciencesMoscow, Russia; Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, ParkvilleVIC, Australia
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8
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Kremkow J, Perrinet LU, Monier C, Alonso JM, Aertsen A, Frégnac Y, Masson GS. Push-Pull Receptive Field Organization and Synaptic Depression: Mechanisms for Reliably Encoding Naturalistic Stimuli in V1. Front Neural Circuits 2016; 10:37. [PMID: 27242445 PMCID: PMC4862982 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2016.00037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2016] [Accepted: 04/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Neurons in the primary visual cortex are known for responding vigorously but with high variability to classical stimuli such as drifting bars or gratings. By contrast, natural scenes are encoded more efficiently by sparse and temporal precise spiking responses. We used a conductance-based model of the visual system in higher mammals to investigate how two specific features of the thalamo-cortical pathway, namely push-pull receptive field organization and fast synaptic depression, can contribute to this contextual reshaping of V1 responses. By comparing cortical dynamics evoked respectively by natural vs. artificial stimuli in a comprehensive parametric space analysis, we demonstrate that the reliability and sparseness of the spiking responses during natural vision is not a mere consequence of the increased bandwidth in the sensory input spectrum. Rather, it results from the combined impacts of fast synaptic depression and push-pull inhibition, the later acting for natural scenes as a form of “effective” feed-forward inhibition as demonstrated in other sensory systems. Thus, the combination of feedforward-like inhibition with fast thalamo-cortical synaptic depression by simple cells receiving a direct structured input from thalamus composes a generic computational mechanism for generating a sparse and reliable encoding of natural sensory events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jens Kremkow
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Aix-Marseille UniversitéMarseille, France; Neurobiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of FreiburgFreiburg, Germany; Bernstein Center Freiburg, University of FreiburgFreiburg, Germany; Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York (SUNY-Optometry)New York, NY, USA
| | - Laurent U Perrinet
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France
| | - Cyril Monier
- Unité de Neurosciences, Information et Complexité, UPR Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 3293 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Jose-Manuel Alonso
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York (SUNY-Optometry) New York, NY, USA
| | - Ad Aertsen
- Neurobiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of FreiburgFreiburg, Germany; Bernstein Center Freiburg, University of FreiburgFreiburg, Germany
| | - Yves Frégnac
- Unité de Neurosciences, Information et Complexité, UPR Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 3293 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Guillaume S Masson
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France
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9
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Chemla S, Chavane F. Effects of GABAA kinetics on cortical population activity: computational studies and physiological confirmations. J Neurophysiol 2016; 115:2867-79. [PMID: 26912588 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00352.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2015] [Accepted: 02/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging produces an unprecedented real-time and high-resolution mesoscopic signal to measure the cortical population activity. We have previously shown that the neuronal compartments contributions to the signal are dynamic and stimulus-dependent (Chemla S, Chavane F. Neuroimage 53: 420-438, 2010). Moreover, the VSD signal can also be strongly affected by the network state, such as in anesthetized vs. awake preparations. Here, we investigated the impact of the network state, through GABAA receptors modulation, on the VSD signal using a computational approach. We therefore systematically measured the effect of the GABAA-mediated inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs) decay time constant (τG) on our modeled VSD response to an input stimulus of increasing strength. Our simulations suggest that τG strongly modulates the dynamics of the VSD signal, affecting the amplitude, input response function, and the transient balance of excitation and inhibition. We confirmed these predictions experimentally on awake and anesthetized monkeys, comparing VSD responses to drifting gratings stimuli of various contrasts. Lastly, one in vitro study has suggested that GABAA receptors may also be directly affected by the VSDs themselves (Mennerick S, Chisari M, Shu H, Taylor A, Vasek M, Eisenman L, Zorumski C. J Neurosci 30: 2871-2879, 2010). Our modeling approach suggests that the type of modulation described in this study would actually have a negligible influence on the population response. This study highlights that functional results acquired with different techniques and network states must be compared with caution. Biophysical models are proposed here as an adequate tool to delineate the domain of VSD data interpretation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandrine Chemla
- Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; and
| | - Frédéric Chavane
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
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Purves D, Morgenstern Y, Wojtach WT. Perception and Reality: Why a Wholly Empirical Paradigm is Needed to Understand Vision. Front Syst Neurosci 2015; 9:156. [PMID: 26635546 PMCID: PMC4649043 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A central puzzle in vision science is how perceptions that are routinely at odds with physical measurements of real world properties can arise from neural responses that nonetheless lead to effective behaviors. Here we argue that the solution depends on: (1) rejecting the assumption that the goal of vision is to recover, however imperfectly, properties of the world; and (2) replacing it with a paradigm in which perceptions reflect biological utility based on past experience rather than objective features of the environment. Present evidence is consistent with the conclusion that conceiving vision in wholly empirical terms provides a plausible way to understand what we see and why.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dale Purves
- Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA
| | | | - William T. Wojtach
- Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA
- Duke-NUS Graduate Medical SchoolSingapore, Singapore
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Raguet H, Monier C, Foubert L, Ferezou I, Fregnac Y, Peyré G. Spatially Structured Sparse Morphological Component Separation for voltage-sensitive dye optical imaging. J Neurosci Methods 2015; 257:76-96. [PMID: 26434707 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2015.09.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2015] [Revised: 09/23/2015] [Accepted: 09/23/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Voltage-sensitive dye optical imaging is a promising technique for studying in vivo neural assemblies dynamics where functional clustering can be visualized in the imaging plane. Its practical potential is however limited by many artifacts. NEW METHOD We present a novel method, that we call "SMCS" (Spatially Structured Sparse Morphological Component Separation), to separate the relevant biological signal from noise and artifacts. It extends Generalized Linear Models (GLM) by using a set of convex non-smooth regularization priors adapted to the morphology of the sources and artifacts to capture. RESULTS We make use of first order proximal splitting algorithms to solve the corresponding large scale optimization problem. We also propose an automatic parameters selection procedure based on statistical risk estimation methods. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS We compare this method with blank subtraction and GLM methods on both synthetic and real data. It shows encouraging perspectives for the observation of complex cortical dynamics. CONCLUSIONS This work shows how recent advances in source separation can be integrated into a biophysical model of VSDOI. Going beyond GLM methods is important to capture transient cortical events such as propagating waves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Raguet
- CNRS and Ceremade, Université Paris-Dauphine, Place du Maréchal De Lattre De Tassigny, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.
| | - Cyril Monier
- Unit of Neuroscience, Information and Complexity, CNRS UPR-3293, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
| | - Luc Foubert
- Unit of Neuroscience, Information and Complexity, CNRS UPR-3293, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
| | - Isabelle Ferezou
- Unit of Neuroscience, Information and Complexity, CNRS UPR-3293, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
| | - Yves Fregnac
- Unit of Neuroscience, Information and Complexity, CNRS UPR-3293, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
| | - Gabriel Peyré
- CNRS and Ceremade, Université Paris-Dauphine, Place du Maréchal De Lattre De Tassigny, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.
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Nortmann N, Rekauzke S, Onat S, König P, Jancke D. Primary visual cortex represents the difference between past and present. Cereb Cortex 2015; 25:1427-40. [PMID: 24343889 PMCID: PMC4428292 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
The visual system is confronted with rapidly changing stimuli in everyday life. It is not well understood how information in such a stream of input is updated within the brain. We performed voltage-sensitive dye imaging across the primary visual cortex (V1) to capture responses to sequences of natural scene contours. We presented vertically and horizontally filtered natural images, and their superpositions, at 10 or 33 Hz. At low frequency, the encoding was found to represent not the currently presented images, but differences in orientation between consecutive images. This was in sharp contrast to more rapid sequences for which we found an ongoing representation of current input, consistent with earlier studies. Our finding that for slower image sequences, V1 does no longer report actual features but represents their relative difference in time counteracts the view that the first cortical processing stage must always transfer complete information. Instead, we show its capacities for change detection with a new emphasis on the role of automatic computation evolving in the 100-ms range, inevitably affecting information transmission further downstream.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nora Nortmann
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
- Bernstein Group for Computational Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49069 Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Sascha Rekauzke
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
- Bernstein Group for Computational Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
| | - Selim Onat
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49069 Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Peter König
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49069 Osnabrück, Germany
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Dirk Jancke
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
- Bernstein Group for Computational Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
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13
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Voltage-sensitive dye imaging of transcranial magnetic stimulation-induced intracortical dynamics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:13553-8. [PMID: 25187557 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1405508111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is widely used in clinical interventions and basic neuroscience. Additionally, it has become a powerful tool to drive plastic changes in neuronal networks. However, highly resolved recordings of the immediate TMS effects have remained scarce, because existing recording techniques are limited in spatial or temporal resolution or are interfered with by the strong TMS-induced electric field. To circumvent these constraints, we performed optical imaging with voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) in an animal experimental setting using anaesthetized cats. The dye signals reflect gradual changes in the cells' membrane potential across several square millimeters of cortical tissue, thus enabling direct visualization of TMS-induced neuronal population dynamics. After application of a single TMS pulse across visual cortex, brief focal activation was immediately followed by synchronous suppression of a large pool of neurons. With consecutive magnetic pulses (10 Hz), widespread activity within this "basin of suppression" increased stepwise to suprathreshold levels and spontaneous activity was enhanced. Visual stimulation after repetitive TMS revealed long-term potentiation of evoked activity. Furthermore, loss of the "deceleration-acceleration" notch during the rising phase of the response, as a signature of fast intracortical inhibition detectable with VSD imaging, indicated weakened inhibition as an important driving force of increasing cortical excitability. In summary, our data show that high-frequency TMS changes the balance between excitation and inhibition in favor of an excitatory cortical state. VSD imaging may thus be a promising technique to trace TMS-induced changes in excitability and resulting plastic processes across cortical maps with high spatial and temporal resolutions.
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14
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Baudot P, Levy M, Marre O, Monier C, Pananceau M, Frégnac Y. Animation of natural scene by virtual eye-movements evokes high precision and low noise in V1 neurons. Front Neural Circuits 2013; 7:206. [PMID: 24409121 PMCID: PMC3873532 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2013] [Accepted: 12/12/2013] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Synaptic noise is thought to be a limiting factor for computational efficiency in the brain. In visual cortex (V1), ongoing activity is present in vivo, and spiking responses to simple stimuli are highly unreliable across trials. Stimulus statistics used to plot receptive fields, however, are quite different from those experienced during natural visuomotor exploration. We recorded V1 neurons intracellularly in the anaesthetized and paralyzed cat and compared their spiking and synaptic responses to full field natural images animated by simulated eye-movements to those evoked by simpler (grating) or higher dimensionality statistics (dense noise). In most cells, natural scene animation was the only condition where high temporal precision (in the 10–20 ms range) was maintained during sparse and reliable activity. At the subthreshold level, irregular but highly reproducible membrane potential dynamics were observed, even during long (several 100 ms) “spike-less” periods. We showed that both the spatial structure of natural scenes and the temporal dynamics of eye-movements increase the signal-to-noise ratio by a non-linear amplification of the signal combined with a reduction of the subthreshold contextual noise. These data support the view that the sparsening and the time precision of the neural code in V1 may depend primarily on three factors: (1) broadband input spectrum: the bandwidth must be rich enough for recruiting optimally the diversity of spatial and time constants during recurrent processing; (2) tight temporal interplay of excitation and inhibition: conductance measurements demonstrate that natural scene statistics narrow selectively the duration of the spiking opportunity window during which the balance between excitation and inhibition changes transiently and reversibly; (3) signal energy in the lower frequency band: a minimal level of power is needed below 10 Hz to reach consistently the spiking threshold, a situation rarely reached with visual dense noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Baudot
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Manuel Levy
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Olivier Marre
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Cyril Monier
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Marc Pananceau
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Yves Frégnac
- Unité de Neuroscience, Information et Complexité, UPR 3293 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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15
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Onat S, Jancke D, König P. Cortical long-range interactions embed statistical knowledge of natural sensory input: a voltage-sensitive dye imaging study. F1000Res 2013; 2:51. [PMID: 24358899 PMCID: PMC3829195 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.2-51.v2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/29/2013] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
How is contextual processing as demonstrated with simplified stimuli, cortically enacted in response to ecologically relevant complex and dynamic stimuli? Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we captured mesoscopic population dynamics across several square millimeters of cat primary visual cortex. By presenting natural movies locally through either one or two adjacent apertures, we show that simultaneous presentation leads to mutual facilitation of activity. These synergistic effects were most effective when both movie patches originated from the same natural movie, thus forming a coherent stimulus in which the inherent spatio-temporal structure of natural movies were preserved in accord with Gestalt principles of perceptual organization. These results suggest that natural sensory input triggers cooperative mechanisms that are imprinted into the cortical functional architecture as early as in primary visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Selim Onat
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Department of Neurobiopsychology, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49069, Germany
| | - Dirk Jancke
- Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany ; Cognitive Neurobiology, Bernstein Group for Computational Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Peter König
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Department of Neurobiopsychology, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49069, Germany
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16
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Population response to natural images in the primary visual cortex encodes local stimulus attributes and perceptual processing. J Neurosci 2013; 32:13971-86. [PMID: 23035105 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1596-12.2012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The primary visual cortex (V1) is extensively studied with a large repertoire of stimuli, yet little is known about its encoding of natural images. Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in behaving monkeys, we measured neural population response evoked in V1 by natural images presented during a face/scramble discrimination task. The population response showed two distinct phases of activity: an early phase that was spread over most of the imaged area, and a late phase that was spatially confined. To study the detailed relation between the stimulus and the population response, we used a simple encoding model to compute a continuous map of the expected neural response based on local attributes of the stimulus (luminance and contrast), followed by an analytical retinotopic transformation. Then, we computed the spatial correlation between the maps of the expected and observed response. We found that the early response was highly correlated with the local luminance of the stimulus and was sufficient to effectively discriminate between stimuli at the single trial level. The late response, on the other hand, showed a much lower correlation to the local luminance, was confined to central parts of the face images, and was highly correlated with the animal's perceptual report. Our study reveals a continuous spatial encoding of low- and high-level features of natural images in V1. The low level is directly linked to the stimulus basic local attributes and the high level is correlated with the perceptual outcome of the stimulus processing.
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17
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Information coding in a laminar computational model of cat primary visual cortex. J Comput Neurosci 2012; 34:273-83. [PMID: 22907135 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-012-0420-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2012] [Revised: 07/21/2012] [Accepted: 07/29/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Neural populations across cortical layers perform different computational tasks. However, it is not known whether information in different layers is encoded using a common neural code or whether it depends on the specific layer. Here we studied the laminar distribution of information in a large-scale computational model of cat primary visual cortex. We analyzed the amount of information about the input stimulus conveyed by the different representations of the cortical responses. In particular, we compared the information encoded in four possible neural codes: (1) the information carried by the firing rate of individual neurons; (2) the information carried by spike patterns within a time window; (3) the rate-and-phase information carried by the firing rate labelled by the phase of the Local Field Potentials (LFP); (4) the pattern-and-phase information carried by the spike patterns tagged with the LFP phase. We found that there is substantially more information in the rate-and-phase code compared with the firing rate alone for low LFP frequency bands (less than 30 Hz). When comparing how information is encoded across layers, we found that the extra information contained in a rate-and-phase code may reach 90 % in Layer 4, while in other layers it reaches only 60 %, compared to the information carried by the firing rate alone. These results suggest that information processing in primary sensory cortices could rely on different coding strategies across different layers.
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