Efficient Discrimination of Temporal Patterns by Motion-Sensitive Neurons in Primate Visual Cortex

Burac̆as, G. T., Zador, A. M., DeWeese, M. R., Albright, T. D. (1998) Efficient Discrimination of Temporal Patterns by Motion-Sensitive Neurons in Primate Visual Cortex. Neuron, 20 (5). pp. 959-969. ISSN 0896-6273

URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9620700
DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80477-8

Abstract

Although motion-sensitive neurons in macaque middle temporal (MT) area are conventionally characterized using stimuli whose velocity remains constant for 1–3 s, many ecologically relevant stimuli change on a shorter time scale (30–300 ms). We compared neuronal responses to conventional (constant-velocity) and time-varying stimuli in alert primates. The responses to both stimulus ensembles were well described as rate-modulated Poisson processes but with very high precision (∼3 ms) modulation functions underlying the time-varying responses. Information-theoretic analysis revealed that the responses encoded only ∼1 bit/s about constant-velocity stimuli but up to 29 bits/s about the time-varying stimuli. Analysis of local field potentials revealed that part of the residual response variability arose from “noise” sources extrinsic to the neuron. Our results demonstrate that extrastriate neurons in alert primates can encode the fine temporal structure of visual stimuli.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organism description > animal > mammal > primates
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > visual cortex
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Zador lab
Depositing User: Leigh Johnson
Date: 1998
Date Deposited: 27 Mar 2012 20:55
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2017 21:10
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25632

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