Adaptive filtering enhances information transmission in visual cortex

Tatyana O. Sharpee (), Hiroki Sugihara, Andrei V. Kurgansky, Sergei P. Rebrik, Michael P. Stryker and Kenneth D. Miller
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Tatyana O. Sharpee: University of California, San Francisco
Hiroki Sugihara: University of California, San Francisco
Andrei V. Kurgansky: University of California, San Francisco
Sergei P. Rebrik: University of California, San Francisco
Michael P. Stryker: University of California, San Francisco
Kenneth D. Miller: University of California, San Francisco

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7079, 936-942

Abstract: Abstract Sensory neuroscience seeks to understand how the brain encodes natural environments. However, neural coding has largely been studied using simplified stimuli. In order to assess whether the brain's coding strategy depends on the stimulus ensemble, we apply a new information-theoretic method that allows unbiased calculation of neural filters (receptive fields) from responses to natural scenes or other complex signals with strong multipoint correlations. In the cat primary visual cortex we compare responses to natural inputs with those to noise inputs matched for luminance and contrast. We find that neural filters adaptively change with the input ensemble so as to increase the information carried by the neural response about the filtered stimulus. Adaptation affects the spatial frequency composition of the filter, enhancing sensitivity to under-represented frequencies in agreement with optimal encoding arguments. Adaptation occurs over 40 s to many minutes, longer than most previously reported forms of adaptation.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04519

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