Non-multiplicative attentional modulation patterns in area MT: modeling the possible role of functional interactions with area V1
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1
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Department of Nonlinear Dynamics, Germany
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2
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Goettingen, Germany
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3
Ruhr University, Germany
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4
German Primate Center, Germany
We analyzed single unit recordings in area MT from macaque monkeys performing an attentional task. They were presented a complex composite stimulus made out of moving random-dot-patterns (RDP) at two distinct locations within the receptive field of the recorded MT cell. Attention was directed to a fixation spot or to only one of the two RDPs. The angle between the two RDPs was kept fixed at 120 degrees so that covarying the motion directions provided tuning curves with two peaks. We found that the positions of the response peaks were different from what the single-motion orientation-preferences of the cell predicted. Furthermore they depended on the attentional condition, showing strong signatures of non-linear interactions during the integration of the two stimuli by MT neurons. In particular, repulsion between the response peaks was observed in the attend-fix condition, while in the attend-in condition, the peak associated to the response to the non-attended RDP was attracted back toward the peak associated to the response to the attended RDP.
By using a mean-field ring model of the local circuit of area MT, we could easily reproduce the repulsion effect in the attend-fix condition, assuming local functional interactions described by a kernel with a negative Gaussian like shape. However reproducing qualitatively the complete set of observed non-linear modulations in both the attend-fix and attend-in condition was possible only through an extremely fine tuning of all the parameters.
This raises the question whether additional circuitry is needed to explain robustly and simultaneously all the observed effects. We explore therefore multi-areal network models with multiple coupled rings, in which functional interactions between hypercolumns of area V1 and MT are also taken into account. In this enlarged modeling setting we systematically explore sets of multi-areal functional mechanisms that might underlie non-linear patters of attentional modulation, commenting on their plausibility.
Acknowledgements
The project was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (grant I/79868), the Bernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience Göttingen (grants 01GQ0433 and 01GQ1005C) of the BMBF and the German Research Foundation (DFG) Collaborative Research Center 889 “Cellular Mechanisms of Sensory Processing”.
Keywords:
Attention,
extrastriate cortex,
striate cortex
Conference:
Bernstein Conference 2012, Munich, Germany, 12 Sep - 14 Sep, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention, reward, decision making
Citation:
Helmer
M,
Kozyrev
V,
Treue
S,
Geisel
T and
Battaglia
D
(2012). Non-multiplicative attentional modulation patterns in area MT: modeling the possible role of functional interactions with area V1.
Front. Comput. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Bernstein Conference 2012.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2012.55.00176
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Received:
11 May 2012;
Published Online:
12 Sep 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Markus Helmer, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Department of Nonlinear Dynamics, Goettingen, 37077, Germany, markus@nld.ds.mpg.de