Topic: ferret visual cortex

In ferret visual cortex, spontaneous activity prior to eye-opening is organized into large-scale, modular patterns in the absence of long-range horizontal projections. This correlated activity reveals endogenous networks that predict aspects of future orientation selectivity [1]. Previous modelling works have shown that the long-range correlations observed in these networks can arise from purely locally connected neurons through multi-synaptic interactions [1][2]. Here we seek to explicitly map the structure of cortical lateral interactions through localized perturbations in vivo. We first con

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

In ferret visual cortex, spontaneous activity before eye-opening is organised into large-scale, modular patterns in the absence of long-range projections. This correlated activity reveals endogenous networks that predict aspects of future orientation selectivity. Previous modelling works have shown that the long-range correlations observed in these networks can arise from locally connected neurons through multi-synaptic interactions. Here we seek to map the structure of cortical lateral interactions through localised perturbations in vivo.We first constructed a rectified recurrent neural netwo