Carsen Stringer, Spatial predictive coding in visual cortical neurons

Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Predictive coding is a theoretical framework that can explain how animals build internal models of their sensory environments by predicting sensory inputs. Predictive coding may capture either spatial or temporal relationships between sensory objects. While the original theory by Rao and Ballard, 1999 described spatial predictive coding, much of the recent experimental data has been interpreted as evidence for temporal predictive coding. Here we directly tested whether the ``mismatch" neural responses are due to a spatial or a temporal internal model. We adopted two common paradigms to study predictive coding: one based on virtual-reality and one based on static images. After training with repeated visual stimulation for several days, we performed multiple manipulations, including: 1) we introduced a novel stimulus, 2) we replaced a stimulus with a gray wall, 3) we repeated a trained stimulus or 4) we altered the order of the stimuli. The first two manipulations induced a substantial mismatch response in the neural populations of up to 20,000 neurons recorded across primary and higher-order visual cortex, while the third and fourth ones did not. Thus, a mismatch response only occurred if a new spatial -- not temporal -- pattern was introduced.

 

The talk will be streamed live via Zoom!

 

Guests are welcome!

 

Organized by

Torben Ott / Lisa Rosenblum