Laminar compartmentalization of attention modulation in area V4 aligns with the demands of visual processing hierarchy in the cortex

Attention selectively enhances neural responses to low contrast stimuli in visual area V4, a critical hub that sends projections both up and down the visual hierarchy. Veridical encoding of contrast information is a key computation in early visual areas, while later stages encoding higher level feat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-11, Vol.13 (1), p.19558-19558, Article 19558
Main Authors: Wang, Xiang, Nandy, Anirvan S., Jadi, Monika P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378
631/378/2613/2614
631/378/2649
631/378/2649/1310
Attention - physiology
Computational neuroscience
Humanities and Social Sciences
Information processing
multidisciplinary
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Neurosciences
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sensory perception
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Visual stimuli
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Summary:Attention selectively enhances neural responses to low contrast stimuli in visual area V4, a critical hub that sends projections both up and down the visual hierarchy. Veridical encoding of contrast information is a key computation in early visual areas, while later stages encoding higher level features benefit from improved sensitivity to low contrast. How area V4 meets these distinct information processing demands in the attentive state is unknown. We found that attentional modulation in V4 is cortical layer and cell-class specific. Putative excitatory neurons in the superficial layers show enhanced boosting of low contrast information, while those of deep layers exhibit contrast-independent scaling. Computational modeling suggested the extent of spatial integration of inhibitory neurons as the mechanism behind such laminar differences. Considering that superficial neurons are known to project to higher areas and deep layers to early visual areas, our findings suggest that the interactions between attention and contrast in V4 are compartmentalized, in alignment with the demands of the visual processing hierarchy.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-46722-8