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Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
Spatiotemporal Divergence Between Intrinsic And Evoked Cortical Activity Predicts Visual Detection
Dylan Jensen1, Zachary W Davis1
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah.
Summary
Intrinsic brain activity in surrounding neural populations, not just those encoding stimuli, better predicts visual detection performance. This suggests broader neural states significantly influence perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory Perception
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Sensory detection thresholds fluctuate with intrinsic cortical activity.
- The interplay between stimulus-evoked responses and intrinsic neural states in sensory detection remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how intrinsic activity states in both stimulus-encoding and non-encoding cortical populations influence visual detection.
- To determine the spatiotemporal structure of intrinsic activity relevant to perceptual thresholds.
Main Methods:
- Recorded intrinsic and target-evoked population activity in cortical Area MT of common marmosets during a visual detection task.
- Compared detection performance based on target-evoked responses versus intrinsic activity in surrounding populations.
Main Results:
- Intrinsic activity in non-encoding populations predicted trial-by-trial detection performance better than evoked responses.
- Detection performance was best predicted by the divergence in activity between encoding and surrounding populations.
Conclusions:
- Distributed intrinsic activity states, particularly in non-encoding populations, significantly influence sensory signal representation and perceptual thresholds.
- Broader neural population states play a crucial role in sensory computations underlying perceptual decisions, challenging the focus on solely stimulus-encoding populations.
