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Articles, Systems/Circuits

Gating of Sensory Input by Spontaneous Cortical Activity

Artur Luczak, Peter Bartho and Kenneth D. Harris
Journal of Neuroscience 23 January 2013, 33 (4) 1684-1695; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2928-12.2013
Artur Luczak
1Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 07102,
2Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1K 3M4,
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Peter Bartho
1Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 07102,
3Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest 1083, Hungary, and
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Kenneth D. Harris
1Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 07102,
4Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
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Abstract

The activity of neural populations is determined not only by sensory inputs but also by internally generated patterns. During quiet wakefulness, the brain produces spontaneous firing events that can spread over large areas of cortex and have been suggested to underlie processes such as memory recall and consolidation. Here we demonstrate a different role for spontaneous activity in sensory cortex: gating of sensory inputs. We show that population activity in rat auditory cortex is composed of transient 50–100 ms packets of spiking activity that occur irregularly during silence and sustained tone stimuli, but reliably at tone onset. Population activity within these packets had broadly consistent spatiotemporal structure, but the rate and also precise relative timing of action potentials varied between stimuli. Packet frequency varied with cortical state, with desynchronized state activity consistent with superposition of multiple overlapping packets. We suggest that such packets reflect the sporadic opening of a “gate” that allows auditory cortex to broadcast a representation of external sounds to other brain regions.

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The Journal of Neuroscience: 33 (4)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 33, Issue 4
23 Jan 2013
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Gating of Sensory Input by Spontaneous Cortical Activity
Artur Luczak, Peter Bartho, Kenneth D. Harris
Journal of Neuroscience 23 January 2013, 33 (4) 1684-1695; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2928-12.2013

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Gating of Sensory Input by Spontaneous Cortical Activity
Artur Luczak, Peter Bartho, Kenneth D. Harris
Journal of Neuroscience 23 January 2013, 33 (4) 1684-1695; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2928-12.2013
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