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Cited by 477Neural dynamics and brain functionVisual perception and processing mechanismsMultisensory perception and integration

Stimulus-dependent synchronization of neuronal responses in the visual cortex of the awake macaque monkey

Open access
Kreiter, AK, Singer, W·1996·The Journal of Neuroscience
DOI 10.1523/jneurosci.16-07-02381.1996PMC PMC6578521
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Abstract

In visual areas of the cerebral cortex, most neurons exhibit preferences for particular features of visual stimuli, but in general, the tuning is broad. Thus, even simple stimuli evoke responses in numerous neurons with differing but overlapping feature preferences, and it is commonly held that a particular feature is encoded in the pattern of graded responses of the activated population rather than in the optimal responses of individual cells. To decipher this population code, responses evoked by a particular stimulus need to be identified and bound together for further joint processing and must not be confounded with responses to other, nearby stimuli. Such selection of related responses could be achieved by synchronizing the respective discharges at a time scale of milliseconds, as this would selectively and jointly enhance their saliency. This hypothesis predicts that a given set of neurons should exhibit synchronized discharges more often when responding to a single stimulus than when activated by different but simultaneously presented stimuli. To test this prediction, recordings were performed with two electrodes from spatially segregated cells in the middle temporal area (MT) of the awake behaving macaque monkey. It was found that cells with overlapping receptive fields, but different preferences for directions of motion, can engage in synchronous activity if they are stimulated with a single moving bar. In contrast, if the same cells are activated with two different bars, each moving in the direction preferred by the cells at the two respective sites, responses show no or much fewer synchronous epochs. Control experiments exclude that this effect is attributable to changes in response amplitude, the mere presence of two stimuli, or the specific orientation of the bars. The critical variable determining the strength of correlation is the extent to which both sites are activated by a common stimulus or by two different stimuli with different directions of motion.

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  • Neurons processing visual information fire asynchronously when an animal does not attend to a stimulus, but fire synchronously when the animal attends to and is presumed conscious of the stimulus.

    “work conducted by Wolf Singer and colleagues demonstrated that neurones processing visual information fired asynchronously when an animal does not attend to the stimulus, but fired synchronously when the animal attends to, and is presumed to be conscious of, the stimulus (Kreiter and Singer, 1996).”

    From Consciousness: Matter or EMF? (2023) · cites this paper as Kreiter and Singer, 1996

    The Results and Discussion report greater synchrony when recorded neurons responded to one moving bar than when they responded to two different bars. Materials and Methods describes a fixation task, not a comparison of attended and unattended stimuli. The paper does not establish the claimed link between synchrony, attention, and presumed consciousness. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Neurons in the monkey brain fire synchronously when the animal attends to the stimulus.

    “Work conducted by Wolf Singer and colleagues in the 1990s demonstrated that neurons in the monkey brain fire synchronously when the animal attends to the stimulus [14], and additional studies confirmed and extended these findings [15].”

    From The electromagnetic will (2021) · cites this paper as [14]

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. J. Neurosci., April 1, 1996, 76(7):2381-2396
  2. J. Neurosci., April 1, 1996, 76(7):2381-2396
  3. J. Neurosci., April 1, 1996, 16(7):2381-2396

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Authors
Kreiter, A., & Singer, W.
Affiliations
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (DE)
ORCID
Singer, W
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher
Society for Neuroscience
Published
1996-04-01
Volume
16
Issue
7
Pages
2381-2396
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
DOI
10.1523/jneurosci.16-07-02381.1996
PMC
PMC6578521
OpenAlex
W2166037666
Cited by
477
References
113
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 18
FWCI
16.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
Keywords
neuronal synchronization, population coding, middle temporal area, MT, direction selectivity, receptive fields, stimulus selectivity, visual cortex, macaque
MeSH terms
Action Potentials, Animals, Consciousness, Electrophysiology, Eye Movements, Macaca fascicularis, Male, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Visual Cortex

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