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Brain state and contrast sensitivity in the awake visual thalamus

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Abstract

Neuronal responses to visual stimuli depend on both the nature of the stimulus and brain state. Here we examined the contrast sensitivity of visual thalamic neurons as awake rabbits shifted between alert and nonalert states. We found that despite a large increase in response gain with alertness, contrast sensitivity remained nearly constant. This accurate scaling might be achieved through a balanced increase in excitation and inhibition with alertness.

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Figure 1: When rabbits shift from nonalert to alert states, the amplitude of the thalamic visual responses is multiplied by a factor of ∼2.
Figure 2: When rabbits shift from nonalert to alert states, contrast sensitivity remains nearly constant and visual responses become more linear.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Eye Institute (grant EY13788) and the National Institute of Mental Health (grant MH-64024), and by the Formación de Personal Investigador, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain (FPI, MEC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Storrs, 06269, Connecticut, USA

    Monica Cano, Tatiana Bezdudnaya & Harvey A Swadlow

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, SUNY College of Optometry, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, 10036, New York, USA

    Jose-Manuel Alonso

Authors
  1. Monica Cano
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  2. Tatiana Bezdudnaya
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  3. Harvey A Swadlow
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  4. Jose-Manuel Alonso
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Contributions

Each of the authors took part in all phases of this work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jose-Manuel Alonso.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Measurements of LGN responses to visual contrast at two different brain states, alert and nonalert. (PDF 129 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Each contrast response function was measured twice at each state to verify repeatability. (PDF 115 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Neuronal reponses to the different visual contrasts were quantified as the first Fourier harmonic of the response (F1) or as the mean firing rate (F0) and then, the F1 or F0 values were fit with a hyperbolic ratio function. (PDF 92 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 152 kb)

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Cano, M., Bezdudnaya, T., Swadlow, H. et al. Brain state and contrast sensitivity in the awake visual thalamus. Nat Neurosci 9, 1240–1242 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1760

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1760

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