Topic: excitatory optogenetics

Modular (columnar) activity is a fundamental mode of neural activity in the cortex of primates and carnivores. Work in ferret visual cortex has shown that already prior to visual experience, early spontaneous activity is modular, revealing large-scale correlated networks that are predictive of future functional networks representing stimulus orientation. However, the origin of modular activity in the early cortex is unclear at present. Computational models predict a striking ability of developing intracortical circuits to self-organize into modular, coordinated patterns of activity which refle