Control of single neuron activity by global network dynamics in auditory cortex

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Control of single neuron activity by global network dynamics in auditory cortex The electrical activity of neurons reflects an interplay of sensory input and the brain's own internal dynamics. In sensory cortices, neuronal firing correlates well with characteristics of sensory stimuli; on the other hand, each cortical neuron receives the vast majority of its inputs from other cortical neurons, suggesting that spiking is largely controlled by the activity of the local network. This viewpoint is supported by simultaneous recordings of multiple cells, which show synchronized patterns of spontaneous activity beyond those imposed by the structure of the sensory stimulus. In prior work, we found that the global dynamics of population activity in rat auditory cortex is well approximated by a low-dimensional self-exciting system model, and that the variations in population dynamics with cortical state can be captured by changes in the parameters of this model. Here we investigate the relationship of electrophysiologically identified single neurons to global population dynamics in this context. In the model, population activity is characterized by a pair of 'mean field' variables, v and w, that reflect the average population firing rate and integrated recent past activity, respectively. To predict the spike times of individual neurons from population activity, we use an approach analogous to the computation of hippocampal "place fields", by predicting the mean firing probability of each neuron as a function of position in the v-w plane, which we term the 'activity field.' We find that activity fields for different neurons are quite localized in distinct regions of the v-w plane. We conclude that, while the mean activity of a column is well approximated by a simple low-dimensional dynamical system, individual neurons show widely different relationships to this dynamics. For any neuron, activity fields computed from spontaneous and sensory-evoked activity were similar, further suggesting that the structure of sensory responses reflects the same network dynamics that shape cortical spontaneous activity. This work is supported by NIH Grants MH073245 and R01DC009947. CC was also supported by a Courant Instructorship. Conference: Computational and systems neuroscience 2009, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 26 Feb - 3 Mar, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: (2009). Control of single neuron activity by global network dynamics in auditory cortex. Front. Syst. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Computational and systems neuroscience 2009. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.06.2009.03.152 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 02 Feb 2009; Published Online: 02 Feb 2009. Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Google Google Scholar PubMed Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.