Abstract
It has been empirically established that the cerebral cortical areas defined by Brodmann one hundred years ago solely on the basis of cellular organization are closely correlated to their function, such as sensation, association, and motion. Cytoarchitectonically distinct cortical areas have different densities and types of neurons. Thus, signaling patterns may also vary among cytoarchitectonically unique cortical areas. To examine how neuronal signaling patterns are related to innate cortical functions, we detected intrinsic features of cortical firing by devising a metric that efficiently isolates non-Poisson irregular characteristics, independent of spike rate fluctuations that are caused extrinsically by ever-changing behavioral conditions. Using the new metric, we analyzed spike trains from over 1,000 neurons in 15 cortical areas sampled by eight independent neurophysiological laboratories. Analysis of firing-pattern dissimilarities across cortical areas revealed a gradient of firing regularity that corresponded closely to the functional category of the cortical area; neuronal spiking patterns are regular in motor areas, random in the visual areas, and bursty in the prefrontal area. Thus, signaling patterns may play an important role in function-specific cerebral cortical computation.
Highlights
Neurons transmit stereotypical electrical pulses called spikes
Neuronal firing patterns may depend on cellular organization, which varies among the regions of the brain, according to the roles they play, such as sensation, association, and motion
In order to examine the relationship among signals, structure, and function, we devised a metric to detect firing irregularity intrinsic and specific to individual neurons and analyzed spike sequences from over 1,000 neurons in 15 different cortical areas
Summary
Neurons transmit stereotypical electrical pulses called spikes. The in vivo spike firing of cortical neurons is often regarded as a series of simple random events that conveys no information other than the frequency, or rate, of occurrences. It is possible that neuronal firing patterns differ between brain regions, because biological, as well as mechanical, signals generally reveal internal conditions of the signal generator. It has been known for a century that the cellular organization of the brain is not homogeneous [1], and areas categorized on cytoarchitectonic bases govern different functions [2,3,4]. Temporal signaling patterns of neurons may reflect the cellular organization and effectively control specific computations [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. In order to examine the relationship among signals, structure, and function, we analyzed spike trains sampled from various brain regions
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