Spontaneous travelling cortical waves gate perception in behaving primates

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Visual Cortex Research
• Brain Activity Dynamics

Background:

• Perceptual sensitivity fluctuates dynamically.
• Spontaneous cortical activity waves are known during anesthesia.
• The role of these waves in waking perception remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence and role of spontaneous travelling waves in the awake visual cortex.
• To determine if these waves influence neural and perceptual sensitivity during waking states.

Main Methods:

• Developed novel analytic techniques for analyzing noisy multielectrode data.
• Identified spontaneous travelling waves in the extrastriate visual cortex of awake marmosets.
• Correlated wave activity with target detection performance in a visual task.

Main Results:

• Spontaneous travelling waves were identified in the awake marmoset visual cortex.
• Wave timing and position predicted target-evoked activity magnitude.
• Wave characteristics predicted the likelihood of detecting faint visual targets.
• Disorganized neural activity fluctuations were less predictive.

Conclusions:

• Spontaneous travelling waves play a significant role in sensory processing during wakefulness.
• These waves modulate neural and perceptual sensitivity.
• This finding opens new avenues for understanding brain dynamics and perception.