A Normalization Circuit Underlying Coding of Spatial Attention in Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Normalization Circuit Underlying Coding of Spatial Attention in Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

AU - Duong, Lyndon

AU - Leavitt, Matthew L

AU - Pieper, Florian

AU - Sachs, Adam J.

AU - Martinez-Trujillo, Julio C

PY - 2019/4/20

Y1 - 2019/4/20

N2 - Lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) neurons signal the allocation of voluntary attention; however, the neural computations underlying this function remain unknown. To investigate this, we recorded from neuronal ensembles in the LPFC of two Macaca fascicularis performing a visuospatial attention task. LPFC neural responses to a single stimulus were normalized when additional stimuli/distracters appeared across the visual field and were well-characterized by an averaging computation. Deploying attention toward an individual stimulus surrounded by distracters shifted neural activity from an averaging regime toward a regime similar to that when the attended stimulus was presented in isolation (winner-take-all; WTA). However, attentional modulation is both qualitatively and quantitatively dependent on a neuron's visuospatial tuning. Our results show that during attentive vision, LPFC neuronal ensemble activity can be robustly read out by downstream areas to generate motor commands, and/or fed back into sensory areas to filter out distracter signals in favor of target signals.

AB - Lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) neurons signal the allocation of voluntary attention; however, the neural computations underlying this function remain unknown. To investigate this, we recorded from neuronal ensembles in the LPFC of two Macaca fascicularis performing a visuospatial attention task. LPFC neural responses to a single stimulus were normalized when additional stimuli/distracters appeared across the visual field and were well-characterized by an averaging computation. Deploying attention toward an individual stimulus surrounded by distracters shifted neural activity from an averaging regime toward a regime similar to that when the attended stimulus was presented in isolation (winner-take-all; WTA). However, attentional modulation is both qualitatively and quantitatively dependent on a neuron's visuospatial tuning. Our results show that during attentive vision, LPFC neuronal ensemble activity can be robustly read out by downstream areas to generate motor commands, and/or fed back into sensory areas to filter out distracter signals in favor of target signals.

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0301-18.2019

DO - https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0301-18.2019

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

VL - 6

JO - ENEURO

JF - ENEURO

SN - 2373-2822

IS - 2

ER -