Stimulus repetition modulates gamma-band synchronization in primate visual cortex
Abstract
When a visual stimulus repeats multiple times, visual cortical neurons show decreasing firing rate responses, yet neither perception nor stimulus-related behavior is compromised. We show that stimulus repetition leads to increased neuronal gamma-band (∼40-90 Hz) synchronization within and between early and higher visual areas. The enhanced gamma-band synchronization likely maintains effective stimulus signaling in the face of dwindling firing rates. We also show that synchronization to the gamma rhythm increases for spikes in general and for those of putative interneurons, whereas it decreases for spikes of putative excitatory neurons if they are not strongly stimulus-driven. Thus, inhibitory interneurons might create increasingly precise gamma-band synchronization, and thereby prune the stimulus representation by pyramidal cells to be sparser and more efficient.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- March 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1309714111
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..111.3626B