RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Evidence for time division multiplexing: Single neurons may encode simultaneous stimuli by switching between activity patterns
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 107185
DO 10.1101/107185
A1 Valeria C. Caruso
A1 Jeff T. Mohl
A1 Christopher Glynn
A1 Jungah Lee
A1 Shawn M. Willett
A1 Azeem Zaman
A1 Akinori F. Ebihara
A1 Rolando Estrada
A1 Winrich A. Freiwald
A1 Surya T. Tokdar
A1 Jennifer M. Groh
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/26/107185.abstract
AB How the brain preserves information about multiple simultaneous items is poorly understood. We report that single neurons can represent multiple different stimuli by interleaving different signals across time. We record single units in an auditory region, the inferior colliculus, while monkeys localize 1 or 2 simultaneous sounds. During dual-sound trials, we find that some neurons fluctuate between firing rates observed for each single sound, either on a whole-trial or on a sub-trial timescale. These fluctuations are correlated in pairs of neurons, can be predicted by the state of local field potentials prior to sound onset, and, in one monkey, can predict which sound will be reported first. We find corroborating evidence of fluctuating activity patterns in a separate data set involving responses of inferotemporal cortex neurons to multiple visual stimuli. Alternation between activity patterns corresponding to each of multiple items may therefore be a general strategy to enhance the brain processing capacity, potentially linking such disparate phenomena as variable neural firing, neural oscillations, and limits in attentional/memory capacity.