Abstract
SummaryVirtually all stages of the visual system exhibit adaptation: neurons adjust their responses based on the recent stimulus history. While some of these adjustments occur at specific stages, others may be inherited from earlier stages. How do adaptation effects cascade along the visual system? We measured spatially selective adaptation at two successive stages in the mouse visual system: visual thalamus (LGN) and primary visual cortex (V1). This form of adaptation affected both stages but in drastically different ways: in LGN it only changed response gain, while in V1 it also shifted spatial tuning away from the adaptor. These effects, however, are reconciled by a simple model whereby V1 neurons summate LGN inputs with a fixed, unadaptable weighting profile. These results indicate that adaptation effects cascade through the visual system, that this cascading can shape selectivity, and that the rules of integration from one stage to the next are not themselves adaptable.
Highlights
Since the very first report of spike trains in sensory nerves (Adrian and Zotterman, 1926), there have been multiple demonstrations of neural adaptation in sensory systems
All stages of the visual system exhibit adaptation: neurons adjust their responses based on the recent stimulus history
While some of these adjustments occur at specific stages, others may be inherited from earlier stages
Summary
Since the very first report of spike trains in sensory nerves (Adrian and Zotterman, 1926), there have been multiple demonstrations of neural adaptation in sensory systems. Sensory systems adjust their activity based on recent stimulus statistics (Wark et al, 2007). These effects are pervasive: they are observed in invertebrates (Brenner et al, 2000; Fairhall et al, 2001) and in vertebrates, where they affect multiple sensory modalities, including somatosensation (Maravall et al, 2007), audition (Condon and Weinberger, 1991; Dean et al, 2005; Nagel and Doupe, 2006; Ulanovsky et al, 2003), and vision (reviewed in Kohn, 2007). The first effect is akin to general neural fatigue; the second suggests a more specific adjustment of stimulus representation
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