Spatiotemporal Patterns of Light Stimulation are Correlated with Large Scale Dynamical Patterns of Synchronised Oscillations

Abstract

Although there have been many reports of fast frequency (10–50 Hz) oscillations in the vertebrate visual system, much debate persists about their functional significance to visual processing.^1,2,3,4,5 In previous reports, we have demonstrated the existence of widespread oscillatory discharges throughout multiple retinorecipient nuclei in the subcortical visual system of the anaesthetised and awake rat.⁶ The results of our studies indicate these oscillations may play a role in a form of dynamic-distributed processing of visual information which has yet to be described in the lower levels of the visual system. In this paper, we suggest the visual system may incorporate two modes when making representations of visual attributes. The local feature mode is linked to the theory of circumscribed receptive fields associated with individual neurons.¹ The global feature mode makes use of a periodic oscillatory signal emerging from a network distributed across the retina.