Abstract
The mechanisms by which functional maps and map plasticity contribute to cortical computation remain controversial. Recent studies have revisited the theory of neural Darwinism to interpret the learning-induced map plasticity and neuronal heterogeneity observed in the cortex. Here, we hypothesize that the Darwinian principle provides a substrate to explain the relationship between neuron heterogeneity and cortical functional maps. We demonstrate in the rat auditory cortex that the degree of response variance is closely correlated with the size of its representational area. Further, we show that the response variance within a given population is altered through training. These results suggest that larger representational areas may help to accommodate heterogeneous populations of neurons. Thus, functional maps and map plasticity are likely to play essential roles in Darwinian computation, serving as effective, but not absolutely necessary, structures to generate diverse response properties within a neural population.
Highlights
Functional maps are commonly found in the sensori-motor cortices in the forms of columnar organizations [1,2,3]
We have demonstrated that functional maps and plasticity in the auditory cortex are closely correlated with the variance of mutual information (MI) and firing rate of neural activity
Larger representational areas may help to accommodate a heterogeneous population of neurons that emit diverse responses to stimuli
Summary
Functional maps are commonly found in the sensori-motor cortices in the forms of columnar organizations [1,2,3]. These maps are subject to change during associative or skill learning [4,5,6,7]. Neural plasticity is transient in motor and perceptual learning, thereby contradicting the notion that map plasticity is crucial to learning [18,19,20] It remains unclear how learning-induced plasticity is related to cortical map structure
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