Generating a diverse repertoire of receptive fields in mouse visual cortex

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Generating a diverse repertoire of receptive fields in mouse visual cortex Dmitry Tsigankov1, Audrey Sederberg2 and Matthias Kaschube1* 1 Goethe University, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany 2 University of Chicago, Department of Neurobiology, United States In mouse visual cortex (V1), the receptive fields and responses of neurons are highly diverse [1]. Selectivities for the orientation, direction and visual field location of visual stimuli are arranged nearly randomly across local groups of neurons. In this model study we show that to a very good approximation this organization naturally arises in a very large class of generic random recurrent networks without the need of any stimulus dependent plasticity. We consider a recurrent random network of neurons in V1 layer 4 receiving input from the LGN. Neurons are modeled as firing rate units with a nonlinearity. Assuming the network receives weakly orientation but not direction selective afferent inputs, we show that as a function of average strength of recurrent connections, most neurons increase their orientation selectivity and become also direction selective. For sufficiently strong recurrent connections the distributions of both orientation and direction selectivity closely approaches the experimentally observed distributions in mice [2]. In this regime, neurons show diverse levels of average activity with the majority of cells firing at relatively low rates. Computing the structure of the neurons’ receptive fields we find that they are often composed of several ON- and OFF regions reminiscent of cortical simple cells [1]. We discuss the effect of excitatory and inhibitory connections and the robustness of selectivities with respect to different recurrent connections and visual stimuli. We conclude that a diverse repertoire of receptive fields arises naturally in networks with sufficiently strong recurrent connections. Our results account for the recent observations that neurons in mouse V1 are orientation and direction selective already shortly after the time of eye opening and that dark rearing appears to have little effect on these properties [2]. Acknowledgements Bernstein Focus: Neurotechnology Frankfurt, FKZ 01GQ0840 References [1] Bonin et al., J Neurosc (2011) [2] Rochefort et al., Neuron (2011) Keywords: Dark Rearing, Direction Selectivity, firing rate, Mouse, orientation selectivity, Randomness, Recurrent network Conference: Bernstein Conference 2012, Munich, Germany, 12 Sep - 14 Sep, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Sensory processing and perception Citation: Tsigankov D, Sederberg A and Kaschube M (2012). Generating a diverse repertoire of receptive fields in mouse visual cortex. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference 2012. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2012.55.00067 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: 19 May 2012; Published Online: 12 Sep 2012. * Correspondence: Prof. Matthias Kaschube, Goethe University, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Frankfurt am Main, 60438, Germany, kaschube@fias.uni-frankfurt.de 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 Dmitry Tsigankov Audrey Sederberg Matthias Kaschube Google Dmitry Tsigankov Audrey Sederberg Matthias Kaschube Google Scholar Dmitry Tsigankov Audrey Sederberg Matthias Kaschube PubMed Dmitry Tsigankov Audrey Sederberg Matthias Kaschube 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.