LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Surround Integration Organizes a Spatial Map during Active Sensation

Photo from wikipedia

During active sensation, sensors scan space in order to generate a representation of the outside world. However, since spatial coding in sensory systems is typically addressed by measuring receptive fields… Click to show full abstract

During active sensation, sensors scan space in order to generate a representation of the outside world. However, since spatial coding in sensory systems is typically addressed by measuring receptive fields in a fixed, sensor-based coordinate frame, the cortical representation of scanned space is poorly understood. To address this question, we probed spatial coding in the rodent whisker system using a combination of two-photon imaging and electrophysiology during active touch. We found that surround whiskers powerfully transform the cortical representation of scanned space. On the single-neuron level, surround input profoundly alters response amplitude and modulates spatial preference in the cortex. On the population level, surround input organizes the spatial preference of neurons into a continuous map of the space swept out by the whiskers. These data demonstrate how spatial summation over a moving sensor array is critical to generating population codes of sensory space.

Keywords: active sensation; space; surround; organizes spatial; surround integration

Journal Title: Neuron
Year Published: 2017

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.