Pattern completion and disruption characterize contextual modulation in the visual cortex

作者：Jiakun Fu, Suhas Shrinivasan, Luca Baroni, Zhuokun Ding, Paul G. Fahey, Paweł Pierzchlewicz, Kayla Ponder, Rachel Froebe, Lydia Ntanavara, Taliah Muhammad, Konstantin F. Willeke, Eric Wang, Zhiwei Ding, Dat Tran, Stelios Papadopoulos, Saumil S. Patel, Jacob Reimer, Alexander S. Ecker, Xaq Pitkow, Ján Antolík, Fabian H. Sinz, Ralf M. Haefner, Andreas S. Tolias, Katrin Franke · 发表于：bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1101/2023.03.13.532473 · 被引用次数：28 · 研究领域：Neural dynamics and brain function、Visual perception and processing mechanisms、Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Vision is fundamentally context-dependent, with neuronal responses influenced not just by local features but also by surrounding contextual information. In the visual cortex, studies using simple grating stimuli indicate that congruent stimuli - where the center and surround share the same orientation - are more inhibitory than when orientations are orthogonal, potentially serving redundancy reduction and predictive coding. Understanding these center-surround interactions in relation to natural image statistics is challenging due to the high dimensionality of the stimulus space, yet crucial for deciphering the neuronal code of real-world sensory processing. Utilizing large-scale recordings from mouse V1, we trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to predict and synthesize surround patterns that either optimally suppressed or enhanced responses to center stimuli, confirmed by in vivo experiments. Contrary to the notion that congruent stimuli are suppressive, we found that surrounds that completed patterns based on natural image statistics were facilitatory, while disruptive surrounds were suppressive. Applying our CNN image synthesis method in macaque V1, we discovered that pattern completion within the near surround occurred more frequently with excitatory than with inhibitory surrounds, suggesting that our results in mice are conserved in macaques. Further, experiments and model analyses confirmed previous studies reporting the opposite effect with grating stimuli in bo...