Millisecond-scale Differences in Neural Activity in Auditory Cortex Can Drive Decisions

Overview

Journal Nat Neurosci

Date 2008 Oct 14

PMID 18849984

Citations 55

Authors

Yang Yang

Michael R DeWeese

Gonzalo H Otazu

Anthony M Zador

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Neurons in the auditory cortex can lock to the fine timing of acoustic stimuli with millisecond precision, but it is not known whether this precise spike timing can be used to guide decisions. We used chronically implanted microelectrode pairs to stimulate neurons in the rat auditory cortex directly and found that rats can exploit differences in the timing of cortical activity that are as short as 3 ms to guide decisions.

Citing Articles

A spatial code for temporal information is necessary for efficient sensory learning.

Bagur S, Bourg J, Kempf A, Tarpin T, Bergaoui K, Guo Y Sci Adv. 2025; 11(2):eadr6214.

PMID: 39772691 PMC: 11708902. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr6214.

Signatures of hierarchical temporal processing in the mouse visual system.

Rudelt L, Gonzalez Marx D, Spitzner F, Cramer B, Zierenberg J, Priesemann V PLoS Comput Biol. 2024; 20(8):e1012355.

PMID: 39173067 PMC: 11373856. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012355.

Contributions of cortical neuron firing patterns, synaptic connectivity, and plasticity to task performance.

Insanally M, Albanna B, Toth J, DePasquale B, Fadaei S, Gupta T Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):6023.

PMID: 39019848 PMC: 11255273. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49895-6.

MnO Nanoflower Integrated Optoelectronic Biointerfaces for Photostimulation of Neurons.

Kaya L, Karatum O, Balamur R, Kaleli H, Onal A, Vanalakar S Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023; 10(25):e2301854.

PMID: 37386797 PMC: 10477844. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202301854.

A CMOS-based highly scalable flexible neural electrode interface.

Zhao E, Hull J, Mintz Hemed N, Ulusan H, Bartram J, Zhang A Sci Adv. 2023; 9(23):eadf9524.

PMID: 37285436 PMC: 10246892. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf9524.

References

Uchida N, Mainen Z . Speed and accuracy of olfactory discrimination in the rat. Nat Neurosci. 2003; 6(11):1224-9. DOI: 10.1038/nn1142. View

DeWeese M, Wehr M, Zador A . Binary spiking in auditory cortex. J Neurosci. 2003; 23(21):7940-9. PMC: 6740590. View

Harper N, McAlpine D . Optimal neural population coding of an auditory spatial cue. Nature. 2004; 430(7000):682-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature02768. View

MOUNTCASTLE V, Talbot W, Sakata H, Hyvarinen J . Cortical neuronal mechanisms in flutter-vibration studied in unanesthetized monkeys. Neuronal periodicity and frequency discrimination. J Neurophysiol. 1969; 32(3):452-84. DOI: 10.1152/jn.1969.32.3.452. View

Salzman C, Britten K, Newsome W . Cortical microstimulation influences perceptual judgements of motion direction. Nature. 1990; 346(6280):174-7. DOI: 10.1038/346174a0. View

Mainen Z, Sejnowski T . Reliability of spike timing in neocortical neurons. Science. 1995; 268(5216):1503-6. DOI: 10.1126/science.7770778. View

Heil P . Auditory cortical onset responses revisited. I. First-spike timing. J Neurophysiol. 1997; 77(5):2616-41. DOI: 10.1152/jn.1997.77.5.2616. View

Romo R, Hernandez A, Zainos A, Salinas E . Somatosensory discrimination based on cortical microstimulation. Nature. 1998; 392(6674):387-90. DOI: 10.1038/32891. View

Buracas G, Zador A, DeWeese M, Albright T . Efficient discrimination of temporal patterns by motion-sensitive neurons in primate visual cortex. Neuron. 1998; 20(5):959-69. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80477-8. View

10.

Luna R, Hernandez A, Brody C, Romo R . Neural codes for perceptual discrimination in primary somatosensory cortex. Nat Neurosci. 2005; 8(9):1210-9. DOI: 10.1038/nn1513. View

11.

Murphey D, Maunsell J . Behavioral detection of electrical microstimulation in different cortical visual areas. Curr Biol. 2007; 17(10):862-7. PMC: 2034326. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.03.066. View

12.

Houweling A, Brecht M . Behavioural report of single neuron stimulation in somatosensory cortex. Nature. 2007; 451(7174):65-8. DOI: 10.1038/nature06447. View

13.

Huber D, Petreanu L, Ghitani N, Ranade S, Hromadka T, Mainen Z . Sparse optical microstimulation in barrel cortex drives learned behaviour in freely moving mice. Nature. 2007; 451(7174):61-4. PMC: 3425380. DOI: 10.1038/nature06445. View

14.

Panzeri S, Petersen R, Schultz S, Lebedev M, Diamond M . The role of spike timing in the coding of stimulus location in rat somatosensory cortex. Neuron. 2001; 29(3):769-77. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00251-3. View

15.

Wehr M, Zador A . Balanced inhibition underlies tuning and sharpens spike timing in auditory cortex. Nature. 2003; 426(6965):442-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature02116. View