Perceptual learning of fine contrast discrimination changes neuronal tuning and population coding in macaque V4.

ABSTRACT: Perceptual learning, the improvement in perceptual abilities with training, is thought to be mediated by an alteration of neuronal tuning. It remains poorly understood how tuning properties change as training progresses, whether improved stimulus tuning directly links to increased behavioural readout of sensory information, or how population coding mechanisms change with training. Here, we recorded continuously from multiple neuronal clusters in area V4 while macaque monkeys learned a fine contrast categorization task. Training increased neuronal coding abilities by shifting the steepest point of contrast response functions towards the categorization boundary. Population coding accuracy of difficult discriminations resulted largely from an increased information coding of individual channel

SUBMITTER: Sanayei M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6185947 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature