Main Menu (Mobile)- Block

Main Menu - Block

High-precision coding in visual cortex.

Our Research / Publications
janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_header | block
Cell. 2021 May 13;184(10):2767-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.042
View Article on
High-precision coding in visual cortex. Stringer LabPachitariu Lab
Stringer C, Michaelos M, Tsyboulski D, Lindo SE, Pachitariu M
janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_abstract | block

Abstract

Individual neurons in visual cortex provide the brain with unreliable estimates of visual features. It is not known whether the single-neuron variability is correlated across large neural populations, thus impairing the global encoding of stimuli. We recorded simultaneously from up to 50,000 neurons in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) and in higher order visual areas and measured stimulus discrimination thresholds of 0.35° and 0.37°, respectively, in an orientation decoding task. These neural thresholds were almost 100 times smaller than the behavioral discrimination thresholds reported in mice. This discrepancy could not be explained by stimulus properties or arousal states. Furthermore, behavioral variability during a sensory discrimination task could not be explained by neural variability in V1. Instead, behavior-related neural activity arose dynamically across a network of non-sensory brain areas. These results imply that perceptual discrimination in mice is limited by downstream decoders, not by neural noise in sensory representations.

PMID: 33857423 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

node:body | entity_field
janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_authors | block

Janelia Authors

Carsen Stringer
Michalis Michaelos
Dmitri Tsyboulski
Marius Pachitariu
janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_tools | block