GABA, noise and gain in human visual cortex.

ABSTRACT: High levels of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter) are associated with enhanced cognitive and perceptual performance. It has been proposed that these effects result from GABA reducing neural noise or variability, but the precise mechanisms remain unknown. We have measured how individual differences in GABA concentration in the visual cortex are related to performance on a visual contrast discrimination task. Our results reveal that the facilitatory strength of the typical "dipper" function elicited by this task is strongly correlated with GABA concentration. A simple, biologically plausible, network model comprising excitatory and suppressive neural populations accounts for the data well and indicates that the strength of suppression increases as

SUBMITTER: Hammett ST 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7511597 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature