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Bevilacqua M, Huxlin KR, Hummel FC, Raffin E. Pathway and directional specificity of Hebbian plasticity in the cortical visual motion processing network. iScience 2023; 26:107064. [PMID: 37408682 PMCID: PMC10319215 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (ccPAS), which repeatedly pairs single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over two distant brain regions, is thought to modulate synaptic plasticity. We explored its spatial selectivity (pathway and direction specificity) and its nature (oscillatory signature and perceptual consequences) when applied along the ascending (Forward) and descending (Backward) motion discrimination pathway. We found unspecific connectivity increases in bottom-up inputs in the low gamma band, probably reflecting visual task exposure. A clear distinction in information transfer occurred in the re-entrant alpha signals, which were only modulated by Backward-ccPAS, and predictive of visual improvements in healthy participants. These results suggest a causal involvement of the re-entrant MT-to-V1 low-frequency inputs in motion discrimination and integration in healthy participants. Modulating re-entrant input activity could provide single-subject prediction scenarios for visual recovery. Visual recovery might indeed partly rely on these residual inputs projecting to spared V1 neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Bevilacqua
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
| | - Krystel R. Huxlin
- The Flaum Eye Institute and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Friedhelm C. Hummel
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
- Clinical Neuroscience, University of Geneva Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Estelle Raffin
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
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Ye Z, Ding J, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Chen S, Yu H, Sun Q, Hua T. Suppression of top-down influence decreases both behavioral and V1 neuronal response sensitivity to stimulus orientations in cats. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1061980. [PMID: 36844652 PMCID: PMC9944033 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1061980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
How top-down influence affects behavioral detection of visual signals and neuronal response sensitivity in the primary visual cortex (V1) remains poorly understood. This study examined both behavioral performance in stimulus orientation identification and neuronal response sensitivity to stimulus orientations in the V1 of cat before and after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated by non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Our results showed that cathode (c) but not sham (s) tDCS in A7 significantly increased the behavioral threshold in identifying stimulus orientation difference, which effect recovered after the tDCS effect vanished. Consistently, c-tDCS but not s-tDCS in A7 significantly decreased the response selectivity bias of V1 neurons for stimulus orientations, which effect could recover after withdrawal of the tDCS effect. Further analysis showed that c-tDCS induced reduction of V1 neurons in response selectivity was not resulted from alterations of neuronal preferred orientation, nor of spontaneous activity. Instead, c-tDCS in A7 significantly lowered the visually-evoked response, especially the maximum response of V1 neurons, which caused a decrease in response selectivity and signal-to-noise ratio. By contrast, s-tDCS exerted no significant effect on the responses of V1 neurons. These results indicate that top-down influence of A7 may enhance behavioral identification of stimulus orientations by increasing neuronal visually-evoked response and response selectivity in the V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Ye
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Jian Ding
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China,School of Basic Medical, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Shunshun Chen
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China,*Correspondence: Tianmiao Hua,
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Yu Y, Stirman JN, Dorsett CR, Smith SL. Selective representations of texture and motion in mouse higher visual areas. Curr Biol 2022; 32:2810-2820.e5. [PMID: 35609609 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
The mouse visual cortex contains interconnected higher visual areas, but their functional specializations are unclear. Here, we used a data-driven approach to examine the representations of complex visual stimuli by L2/3 neurons across mouse higher visual areas, measured using large-field-of-view two-photon calcium imaging. Using specialized stimuli, we found higher fidelity representations of texture in area LM, compared to area AL. Complementarily, we found higher fidelity representations of motion in area AL, compared to area LM. We also observed this segregation of information in response to naturalistic videos. Finally, we explored how receptive field models of visual cortical neurons could produce the segregated representations of texture and motion we observed. These selective representations could aid in behaviors such as visually guided navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiyi Yu
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Center for BioEngineering, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Jeffrey N Stirman
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Christopher R Dorsett
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Spencer L Smith
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Center for BioEngineering, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
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Mechanisms of Surround Suppression Effect on the Contrast Sensitivity of V1 Neurons in Cats. Neural Plast 2022; 2022:5677655. [PMID: 35299618 PMCID: PMC8923783 DOI: 10.1155/2022/5677655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2021] [Revised: 01/30/2022] [Accepted: 02/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Surround suppression (SS) is a phenomenon that a neuron’s response to visual stimuli within the classical receptive field (cRF) is suppressed by a concurrent stimulation in the surrounding receptive field (sRF) beyond the cRF. Studies show that SS affects neuronal response contrast sensitivity in the primary visual cortex (V1). However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we examined SS effect on the contrast sensitivity of cats’ V1 neurons with different preferred SFs using external noise-masked visual stimuli and perceptual template model (PTM) analysis at the system level. The contrast sensitivity was evaluated by the inverted threshold contrast of neurons in response to circular gratings of different contrasts in the cRF with or without an annular grating in the sRF. Our results showed that SS significantly reduced the contrast sensitivity of cats’ V1 neurons. The SS-induced reduction of contrast sensitivity was not correlated with SS strength but was dependent on neuron’s preferred SF, with a larger reduction for neurons with low preferred SFs than those with high preferred SFs. PTM analysis of threshold versus external noise contrast (TvC) functions indicated that SS decreased contrast sensitivity by increasing both the internal additive noise and impact of external noise for neurons with low preferred SFs, but improving only internal additive noise for neurons with high preferred SFs. Furthermore, the SS effect on the contrast-response function of low- and high-SF neurons also exhibited different mechanisms in contrast gain and response gain. Collectively, these results suggest that the mechanisms of SS effect on neuronal contrast sensitivity may depend on neuronal populations with different SFs.
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Ding J, Ye Z, Xu F, Hu X, Yu H, Zhang S, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Sun Q, Hua T, Lu ZL. Effects of top-down influence suppression on behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity functions in cats. iScience 2022; 25:103683. [PMID: 35059603 PMCID: PMC8760559 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
To explore the relative contributions of higher-order and primary visual cortex (V1) to visual perception, we compared cats' behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity functions (CSF) and threshold versus external noise contrast (TvC) functions before and after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We found that suppressing top-down influence of A7 with cathode-tDCS, but not sham-tDCS, reduced behavioral and neuronal contrast sensitivity in the same range of spatial frequencies and increased behavioral and neuronal contrast thresholds in the same range of external noise levels. The neuronal CSF and TvC functions were highly correlated with their behavioral counterparts both before and after the top-down suppression. Analysis of TvC functions using the Perceptual Template Model (PTM) indicated that top-down influence of A7 increased both behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity by reducing internal additive noise and the impact of external noise. Top-down suppression lowers both behavioral and V1 neuronal CSF functions Top-down suppression raises both behavioral and V1 neuronal TvC functions The neuronal CSFs and TvCs are highly correlated with their behavioral counterparts Top-down influence lowers internal additive noise and impact of external noise in V1
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Ding
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Zheng Ye
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Fei Xu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Xiangmei Hu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Shen Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Zhong-Lin Lu
- Divison of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai 200122, China.,Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.,NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai 200062, China
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Ding J, Hu X, Xu F, Yu H, Ye Z, Zhang S, Pan H, Pan D, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Sun Q, Hua T. Suppression of top-down influence decreases neuronal excitability and contrast sensitivity in the V1 cortex of cat. Sci Rep 2021; 11:16034. [PMID: 34362965 PMCID: PMC8346540 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95407-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
How top-down influence affects neuronal activity and information encoding in the primary visual cortex (V1) remains elusive. This study examined changes of neuronal excitability and contrast sensitivity in cat V1 cortex after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The neuronal excitability in V1 cortex was evaluated by visually evoked field potentials (VEPs), and contrast sensitivity (CS) was assessed by the inverse of threshold contrast of neurons in response to visual stimuli at different performance accuracy. We found that the amplitude of VEPs in V1 cortex lowered after top-down influence suppression with cathode-tDCS in A7, whereas VEPs in V1 did not change after sham-tDCS in A7 and nonvisual cortical area 5 (A5) or cathode-tDCS in A5 and lesioned A7. Moreover, the mean CS of V1 neurons decreased after cathode-tDCS but not sham-tDCS in A7, which could recover after tDCS effect vanished. Comparisons of neuronal contrast-response functions showed that cathode-tDCS increased the stimulus contrast required to generate the half-maximum response, with a weakly-correlated reduction in maximum response but not baseline response. Therefore, top-down influence of A7 enhanced neuronal excitability in V1 cortex and improved neuronal contrast sensitivity by both contrast gain and response gain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Ding
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Xiangmei Hu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Fei Xu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Zheng Ye
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Shen Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Huijun Pan
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Deng Pan
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China.
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