Refractory density model of cortical direction selectivity: Lagged-nonlagged, transient-sustained, and On-Off thalamic neuron-based mechanisms and intracortical amplification

Autor: Anton V. Chizhov, Natalia Merkulyeva
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
0301 basic medicine
Physiology
Motion Perception
Action Potentials
0302 clinical medicine
Thalamus
Animal Cells
Cortex (anatomy)
Medicine and Health Sciences
Biology (General)
Visual Cortex
Physics
Membrane potential
Neurons
education.field_of_study
Orientation column
Ecology
Simulation and Modeling
Brain
Single Neuron Function
Electrophysiology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Computational Theory and Mathematics
Modeling and Simulation
Cellular Types
Anatomy
Neural coding
Neuronal Tuning
Research Article
QH301-705.5
Population
Models
Neurological

Neurophysiology
Research and Analysis Methods
Membrane Potential
03 medical and health sciences
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Interneurons
Neuronal tuning
Genetics
medicine
Animals
education
Molecular Biology
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics

Computational Neuroscience
Mechanism (biology)
Biology and Life Sciences
Computational Biology
Cell Biology
Neuronal Dendrites
030104 developmental biology
Visual cortex
Cellular Neuroscience
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Zdroj: PLoS Computational Biology, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e1008333 (2020)
PLoS Computational Biology
ISSN: 1553-7358
Popis: A biophysically detailed description of the mechanisms of the primary vision is still being developed. We have incorporated a simplified, filter-based description of retino-thalamic visual signal processing into the detailed, conductance-based refractory density description of the neuronal population activity of the primary visual cortex. We compared four mechanisms of the direction selectivity (DS), three of them being based on asymmetrical projections of different types of thalamic neurons to the cortex, distinguishing between (i) lagged and nonlagged, (ii) transient and sustained, and (iii) On and Off neurons. The fourth mechanism implies a lack of subcortical bias and is an epiphenomenon of intracortical interactions between orientation columns. The simulations of the cortical response to moving gratings have verified that first three mechanisms provide DS to an extent compared with experimental data and that the biophysical model realistically reproduces characteristics of the visual cortex activity, such as membrane potential, firing rate, and synaptic conductances. The proposed model reveals the difference between the mechanisms of both the intact and the silenced cortex, favoring the second mechanism. In the fourth case, DS is weaker but significant; it completely vanishes in the silenced cortex.DS in the On-Off mechanism derives from the nonlinear interactions within the orientation map. Results of simulations can help to identify a prevailing mechanism of DS in V1. This is a step towards a comprehensive biophysical modeling of the primary visual system in the frameworks of the population rate coding concept.
Author summary A major mechanism that underlies tuning of cortical neurons to the direction of a moving stimulus is still debated. Considering the visual cortex structured with orientation-selective columns, we have realized and compared in our biophysically detailed mathematical model four hypothetical mechanisms of the direction selectivity (DS) known from experiments. The present model accomplishes our previous model that was tuned to experimental data on excitability in slices and reproduces orientation tuning effects in vivo. In simulations, we have found that the convergence of inputs from so-called transient and sustained (or lagged and nonlagged) thalamic neurons in the cortex provides an initial bias for DS, whereas cortical interactions amplify the tuning. In the absence of any bias, DS emerges as an epiphenomenon of the orientation map. In the case of a biased convergence of On- and Off- thalamic inputs, DS emerges with the help of the intracortical interactions on the orientation map, also. Thus, we have proposed a comprehensive description of the primary vision and revealed characteristic features of different mechanisms of DS in the visual cortex with columnar structure.
Databáze: OpenAIRE