Orientation selectivity and the functional clustering of synaptic inputs in primary visual cortex.

ABSTRACT: The majority of neurons in primary visual cortex are tuned for stimulus orientation, but the factors that account for the range of orientation selectivities exhibited by cortical neurons remain unclear. To address this issue, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to characterize the orientation tuning and spatial arrangement of synaptic inputs to the dendritic spines of individual pyramidal neurons in layer 2/3 of ferret visual cortex. The summed synaptic input to individual neurons reliably predicted the neuron's orientation preference, but did not account for differences in orientation selectivity among neurons. These differences reflected a robust input-output nonlinearity that could not be explained by spike threshold alone and was strongly correlated with the spatial clustering o

SUBMITTER: Wilson DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5240628 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature