Visual stimuli recruit intrinsically generated cortical ensembles
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Significance: This study demonstrates that neuronal groups or ensembles, rather than individual neurons, are emergent functional units of cortical activity. We show that in the presence and absence of visual stimulation, cortical activity is dominated by coactive groups of neurons forming ensembles. These ensembles are flexible and cannot be accounted for by the independent firing properties of neurons in isolation. Intrinsically generated ensembles and stimulus-evoked ensembles are similar, with one main difference: Whereas intrinsic ensembles recur at random time intervals, visually evoked ensembles are time-locked to stimuli. We propose that visual stimuli recruit endogenously generated ensembles to represent visual attributes.
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Repeated spontaneous activation of neuron assemblies does occur.
“Repeated spontaneous activation of neuron assemblies does occur106,107”
From The right time to learn: Mechanisms and optimization of spaced learning (2016) · cites this paper as [107]
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- Authors
- Miller, J.-E. K., Ayzenshtat, I., Carrillo-Reid, L., & Yuste, R.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2014-09-08
- Volume
- 111
- Issue
- 38
- Pages
- E4053-61
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4183303
- OpenAlex
- W2086671591
- Cited by
- 288
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 27
- FWCI
- 15.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Eye Institute (K99EY024653, F32EY022579, R01EY011787, DP1EY024503)
- National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (DP1EY024503)
- Army Research Office (W911NF-12-1-0594, W911NF)
- Army Research Laboratory (W911NF-12-1-0594, W911NF)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- neuronal ensembles, spontaneous cortical activity, visual cortex, primary visual cortex, stimulus-evoked responses, population coding, two-photon calcium imaging, mice
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Nerve Net, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Visual Cortex, Mice
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