Heterogeneous orientation tuning in the primary visual cortex of mice diverges from Gabor-like receptive fields in primates
Jiakun Fu,
Paweł A. Pierzchlewicz,
Konstantin F. Willeke,
Mohammad Bashiri,
Taliah Muhammad,
Maria Diamantaki,
Emmanouil Froudarakis,
Kelli Restivo,
Kayla Ponder,
George H. Denfield,
Fabian Sinz,
Andreas S. Tolias,
Katrin Franke
Affiliations
Jiakun Fu
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Paweł A. Pierzchlewicz
Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany; Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Konstantin F. Willeke
Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany; Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Mohammad Bashiri
Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany; Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Taliah Muhammad
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Maria Diamantaki
Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Foundation of Research & Technology - Hellas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece; School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Emmanouil Froudarakis
Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Foundation of Research & Technology - Hellas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece; School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Kelli Restivo
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Kayla Ponder
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
George H. Denfield
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Fabian Sinz
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany; Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Andreas S. Tolias
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94303, USA; Stanford Bio-X, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Corresponding author
Katrin Franke
Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94303, USA; Stanford Bio-X, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: A key feature of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) of primates is their orientation selectivity. Recent studies using deep neural network models showed that the most exciting input (MEI) for mouse V1 neurons exhibit complex spatial structures that predict non-uniform orientation selectivity across the receptive field (RF), in contrast to the classical Gabor filter model. Using local patches of drifting gratings, we identified heterogeneous orientation tuning in mouse V1 that varied up to 90° across sub-regions of the RF. This heterogeneity correlated with deviations from optimal Gabor filters and was consistent across cortical layers and recording modalities (calcium vs. spikes). In contrast, model-synthesized MEIs for macaque V1 neurons were predominantly Gabor like, consistent with previous studies. These findings suggest that complex spatial feature selectivity emerges earlier in the visual pathway in mice than in primates. This may provide a faster, though less general, method of extracting task-relevant information.
