[en] The ability of cortical networks to integrate information from different sources is essential for cognitive processes. On one hand, sensory areas exhibit fast dynamics often phase-locked to stimulation; on the other hand, frontal lobe areas with slow response latencies to stimuli must integrate and maintain information for longer periods. Thus, cortical areas may require different timescales depending on their functional role. Studying the cortical somatosensory network while monkeys discriminated between two vibrotactile stimulus patterns, we found that a hierarchical order could be established across cortical areas based on their intrinsic timescales. Further, even though subareas (areas 3b, 1, and 2) of the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex exhibit analogous firing rate responses, a clear differentiation was observed in their timescales. Importantly, we observed that this inherent timescale hierarchy was invariant between task contexts (demanding vs. nondemanding). Even if task context severely affected neural coding in cortical areas downstream to S1, their timescales remained unaffected. Moreover, we found that these time constants were invariant across neurons with different latencies or coding. Although neurons had completely different dynamics, they all exhibited comparable timescales within each cortical area. Our results suggest that this measure is demonstrative of an inherent characteristic of each cortical area, is not a dynamical feature of individual neurons, and does not depend on task demands.
Disciplines :
Life sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Rossi-Pool, Román ; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico, romanr@ifc.unam.mx ranulfo.romo@gmail.com
Zainos, Antonio ; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
Alvarez, Manuel; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
Parra Sánchez, Sergio ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'électricité, électronique et informatique (Institut Montefiore) > Brain-Inspired Computing ; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
Zizumbo, Jerónimo ; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
Romo, Ranulfo; Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico, romanr@ifc.unam.mx ranulfo.romo@gmail.com ; El Colegio Nacional, 06020 Mexico City, Mexico
Language :
English
Title :
Invariant timescale hierarchy across the cortical somatosensory network.
Publication date :
19 January 2021
Journal title :
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
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