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Simple fall-off pattern of correlated neural activity in the developing lateral geniculate nucleus

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 1541–1548 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Activity-dependent models for cortical simple-cell receptive field development predict specific patterns of correlated neural activity within the visual pathway, such as a Mexican hat–shaped pattern of correlated activity in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). However, such activity patterns have yet to be experimentally demonstrated. We performed multielectrode recordings in the LGN of immature awake ferrets and found simple fall-off–shaped, rather than Mexican hat–shaped, patterns of correlated activity. A weak surround in the LGN neuron's receptive field and the statistics of the input contributed to this pattern of correlated activity. Computer simulation of cortical receptive field development incorporating the experimentally observed activity patterns demonstrated that a simple-cell receptive field emerges when a newly devised 'split' constraint on synaptic growth is combined with Hebbian synaptic modification rules. Thus, given certain developmental constraints on synaptic plasticity, patterns of correlated activity within the LGN are compatible with Hebbian models of simple-cell receptive field development.

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Figure 1: Construction of LGN correlation functions.
Figure 2: Developmental changes in the spatial pattern of stimulus-evoked and spontaneous LGN neural activity in awake ferrets.
Figure 3: Weak surround in the immature LGN neuron's receptive field.
Figure 4: Simulation of visual cortical receptive field development under the correlation-based model, with or without the split constraint.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health (National Eye Institute). T.O. acknowledges the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for their support. We thank S. Hussain for a critical reading of the manuscript and C. Chiu for surgical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Meliora Hall, University of Rochester, Rochester, 14627, New York, USA

    Tomokazu Ohshiro & Michael Weliky

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  1. Tomokazu Ohshiro
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Correspondence to Tomokazu Ohshiro.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

100 ms is an appropriate bin size for detecting negatively correlated activity between neurons with opposite center sign (ON versus OFF). (PDF 736 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Strength of correlated activity (mean r ± s.d.) of each LGN pair plotted as a function of their receptive field separation. (PDF 939 kb)

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Ohshiro, T., Weliky, M. Simple fall-off pattern of correlated neural activity in the developing lateral geniculate nucleus. Nat Neurosci 9, 1541–1548 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1799

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