A model of microsaccade-related neural responses induced by short-term depression in thalamocortical synapses

Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience

Changsong eZhou¹  Wujie eYuan²  Olaf eDimigen³  Werner eSommer³ 

[1] Hong Kong Baptist University ;Huaibei Normal University;Humboldt University at Berlin;

关键词: fixation;    microsaccades;    short-term depression;    feedforward network;    visual fading;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fncom.2013.00047

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Microsaccades during fixation have been suggested to counteract visual fading. Recent experi- ments have also observed microsaccade-related neural responses from cellular record, scalp elec- troencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The underlying mechanism, however, is not yet understood and highly debated. It has been proposed that the neural activity of primary visual cortex (V1) is a crucial component for counteracting visual adaptation. In this paper, we use computational modeling to investigate how short-term depres- sion (STD) in thalamocortical synapses might affect the neural responses of V1 in the presence of microsaccades. Our model not only gives a possible synaptic explanation for microsaccades in counteracting visual fading, but also reproduces several features in experimental findings. These modeling results suggest that STD in thalamocortical synapses plays an important role in microsaccade-related neural responses and the model may be useful for further investigation of behavioral properties and functional roles of microsaccades.

【 授权许可】

Unknown