Fading memory in the visual cortex of awake monkeys

• Applicant: Dr. Danko Nikolic
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232383759

We will make highly parallel recordings from area V1 of awake, behaving monkeys and investigate several questions about distributed coding. In this study, our previous research on the fading memory of briefly presented images in anesthetized animals will be expanded to awake, behaving animals in order to further investigate the properties of sensory coding. Responses recorded simultaneously from many neurons will be fed to computer-simulated readout units that will be trained to classify and reconstruct the presented stimuli. Using these novel methods, we will investigate whether the spiking activity in V1 exhibits the property of fading memory and whether it shows replay of stimulus-related patterns during spontaneous activity. In addition, we will investigate how expectations affect the pattern of spontaneous activity in V1 neurons during an oddball detection task and how the contents of working memory affect the spontaneous activity in primary sensory cortex during the maintenance period in a delayed match to sample task.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants