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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 23, 2008, 28(30):7679-7686; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5640-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
The Neuronal Basis of Attention: Rate versus Synchronization Modulation

Andres Buehlmann1 and Gustavo Deco1,2

1Computational Neuroscience, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain, and 2Institució Catalana d'Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

Correspondence should be addressed to Andres Buehlmann, Computational Neuroscience, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig de Circumval·lació 8, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. Email: andres.buhlmann{at}upf.edu.

Extensive theoretical and experimental work on the neuronal correlates of visual attention raises two hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms. The first hypothesis, named biased competition, originates from experimental single-cell recordings that have shown that attention upmodulates the firing rates of the neurons encoding the attended features and downregulates the firing rates of the neurons encoding the unattended features. Furthermore, attentional modulation of firing rates increases along the visual pathway. The other, newer hypothesis assigns synchronization a crucial role in the attentional process. It stems from experiments that have shown that attention modulates gamma-frequency synchronization. In this paper, we study the coexistence of the two phenomena using a theoretical framework. We find that the two effects can vary independently of each other and across layers. Therefore, the two phenomena are not concomitant. However, we show that there is an advantage in the processing of information if rate modulation is accompanied by gamma modulation, namely that reaction times are shorter, implying behavioral relevance for gamma synchronization.

Key words: computational; model; attention; gamma; synchronization; visual

Received Dec. 20, 2007; revised June 7, 2008; accepted June 17, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Andres Buehlmann, Computational Neuroscience, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig de Circumval·lació 8, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. Email: andres.buhlmann{at}upf.edu.






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