Principal Investigator
Flexible Representation of Behaviorally Relevant Stimuli in the Prefrontal Cortex
Project Collaborators:
- Dr. Albert Compte IDIBAPS
- Dr. Klaus Wimmer IDIBAPS
This project is focused on characterizing the way neurons in prefrontal cortex represent visual motion used in tasks requiring discriminating and remembering this information. We are recording from the region in prefrontal cortex that is reciprocally interconnected with neurons in motion processing area MT (A) while the monkeys discriminate and remember direction of visual motion (B).
This work has revealed that the representation of behaviorally relevant stimulus motion resembles that observed in motion processing cortical area MT, suggesting that these responses represent bottom-up signals (Zaksas & Pasternak, 2006, J. Neuroscience). On the basis of the width of action potentials we identified putative pyramidal neurons likely to give rise to top-down projections to motion processing neurons and putative inhibitory interneurons (C). We found that that these direction selective signals were strongest when the monkeys were engaged in the discrimination of motion direction (E. solid curves). When motion direction was no longer relevant and the task required that the monkeys directed their attention motion speed (dotted curves), direction selectivity in response to the same stimulus decreased. This effect was particularly pronounced in putative inhibitory inter-neurons (red plots) than in putative pyramidal cells (blue curves), pointing to their key role in the regulation sensory selectivity by task demands. (Hussar & Pasternak, 2009, Neuron).
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