High baseline activity in inferior temporal cortex improves neural and behavioral discriminability during visual categorization

Spontaneous firing is a ubiquitous property of neural activity in the brain. Recent literature suggests that this baseline activity plays a key role in perception. However, it is not known how the baseline activity contributes to neural coding and behavior. Here, by recording from the single neurons...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Emadi, Nazli (Author), Rajimehr, Reza (Contributor), Esteky, Hossein (Author)
Other Authors: McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Research Foundation, 2014-12-24T15:51:49Z.
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Summary:Spontaneous firing is a ubiquitous property of neural activity in the brain. Recent literature suggests that this baseline activity plays a key role in perception. However, it is not known how the baseline activity contributes to neural coding and behavior. Here, by recording from the single neurons in the inferior temporal cortex of monkeys performing a visual categorization task, we thoroughly explored the relationship between baseline activity, the evoked response, and behavior. Specifically we found that a low-frequency (<8 Hz) oscillation in the spike train, prior and phase-locked to the stimulus onset, was correlated with increased gamma power and neuronal baseline activity. This enhancement of the baseline activity was then followed by an increase in the neural selectivity and the response reliability and eventually a higher behavioral performance.
Iran National Science Foundation (INSF)