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Distinct population codes for attention in the absence and presence of visual stimulation.

ABSTRACT: Visual neurons respond more vigorously to an attended stimulus than an unattended one. How the brain prepares for response gain in anticipation of that stimulus is not well understood. One prominent proposal is that anticipation is characterized by gain-like modulations of spontaneous activity similar to gains in stimulus responses. Here we test an alternative idea: anticipation is characterized by a mixture of both increases and decreases of spontaneous firing rates. Such a strategy would be adaptive as it supports a simple linear scheme for disentangling internal, modulatory signals from external, sensory inputs. We recorded populations of V4 neurons in monkeys performing an attention task, and found that attention states are signaled by different mixtures of neurons across the population in the presence or absence of a stimulus. Our findings support a move from a stimulation-invariant account of anticipation towards a richer view of attentional modulation in a diverse neuronal population.

SUBMITTER: Snyder AC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6197235 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Distinct population codes for attention in the absence and presence of visual stimulation.

Snyder Adam C AC Yu Byron M BM Smith Matthew A MA

Nature communications 20181022 1

Visual neurons respond more vigorously to an attended stimulus than an unattended one. How the brain prepares for response gain in anticipation of that stimulus is not well understood. One prominent proposal is that anticipation is characterized by gain-like modulations of spontaneous activity similar to gains in stimulus responses. Here we test an alternative idea: anticipation is characterized by a mixture of both increases and decreases of spontaneous firing rates. Such a strategy would be ad ...[more]

PMID: 30348942

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Project description:Many neurodegenerative and neurological diseases are rooted in dysfunction of the neuroimmune system; therefore, manipulating this system has strong therapeutic potential. Prior work has shown that exposing mice to flickering lights at 40 Hz drives gamma frequency (?40 Hz) neural activity and recruits microglia, the primary immune cells of the brain, revealing a novel method to manipulate the neuroimmune system. However, the biochemical signaling mechanisms between 40 Hz neural activity and immune recruitment remain unknown. Here, we exposed wild-type male mice to 5-60 min of 40 Hz or control flicker and assessed cytokine and phosphoprotein networks known to play a role in immune function. We found that 40 Hz flicker leads to increases in the expression of cytokines which promote microglial phagocytic states, such as IL-6 and IL-4, and increased expression of microglial chemokines, such as macrophage-colony-stimulating factor and monokine induced by interferon-?. Interestingly, cytokine effects differed as a function of stimulation frequency, revealing a range of neuroimmune effects of stimulation. To identify possible mechanisms underlying cytokine expression, we quantified the effect of the flicker on intracellular signaling pathways known to regulate cytokine levels. We found that a 40 Hz flicker upregulates phospho-signaling within the nuclear factor ?-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-?B) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. While cytokine expression increased after 1 h of 40 Hz flicker stimulation, protein phosphorylation in the NF-?B pathway was upregulated within minutes. Importantly, the cytokine expression profile induced by 40 Hz flicker was different from cytokine changes in response to acute neuroinflammation induced by lipopolysaccharides. These results are the first, to our knowledge, to show how visual stimulation rapidly induces critical neuroimmune signaling in healthy animals.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Prior work has shown that exposing mice to lights flickering at 40 Hz induces neural spiking activity at 40 Hz (within the gamma frequency) and recruits microglia, the primary immune cells of the brain. However, the immediate effect of 40 Hz flicker on neuroimmune biochemical signaling was unknown. We found that 40 Hz flicker leads to significant increases in the expression of cytokines, key immune signals known to recruit microglia. Furthermore, we found that 40 Hz flicker rapidly changes the phosphorylation of proteins in the NF-?B and MAPK pathways, both known to regulate cytokine expression. Our findings are the first to delineate a specific rapid immune signaling response following 40 Hz visual stimulation, highlighting both the unique nature and therapeutic potential of this treatment.

Dataset Information

Distinct population codes for attention in the absence and presence of visual stimulation.

Publications

Distinct population codes for attention in the absence and presence of visual stimulation.

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