Catecholamines alter the intrinsic variability of cortical population activity and perception

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience
• Psychopharmacology

Background:

• Ascending brainstem modulatory systems regulate global brain states.
• Dysfunction in these systems is linked to neuropsychiatric disorders.
• The precise interaction between modulatory systems and cortical computation is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of catecholaminergic and cholinergic systems on cortical intrinsic variability.
• To explore how these systems influence perception, cognition, and behavior.
• To understand the role of these systems in visual perceptual inference.

Main Methods:

• Placebo-controlled pharmacological intervention in human participants.
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record cortical population activity.
• Psychophysical measurements of ambiguous visual perception.

Main Results:

• Low-dose catecholaminergic manipulation altered spontaneous perceptual fluctuation rates.
• Catecholaminergic, but not cholinergic, manipulation affected the temporal structure of scale-free cortical activity.
• These changes suggest an increased excitatory-to-inhibitory ratio in visual and parietal cortices.

Conclusions:

• Catecholamines regulate perceptual and cognitive variability by modulating the cortical excitation-inhibition ratio.
• This mechanism is crucial for visual perceptual inference.
• Combined measures of perceptual and cortical activity fluctuations may serve as biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders.