Sensitivity of Neurons in the Middle Temporal Area of Marmoset Monkeys to Random Dot Motion

Chaplin, Tristan A.; Allitt, Benjamin J.; Hagan, Maureen A.; Price, Nicholas S. C.; Rajan, Ramesh; Lui, Leo

doi:10.1101/104117

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Recent studies in anesthetized marmosets have been able to span foveal and peripheral representations within MT/MST using planar silicon arrays (Chaplin et al, 2017;Zavitz et al, 2017). Similar methods could be readily employed in awake marmosets in conjunction with the current behavioral paradigm, and would enable us to examine the neural code for motion perception from large-scale populations.…”

Section: Discussion (1630 Words)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motion perception in the common marmoset

Cloherty

Yates

Graf

et al. 2019

Preprint

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words)Visual motion processing is a well-established model system for studying neural population codes in primates. The common marmoset, a small new world primate, offers unparalleled opportunities to probe these population codes in key motion processing areas, such as cortical areas MT and MST, because these areas are accessible for imaging and recording at the cortical surface. However, little is currently known about the perceptual abilities of the marmoset. Here, we introduce a paradigm for studying motion perception in the marmoset and compare their psychophysical performance to human observers. We trained two marmosets to perform a motion estimation task in which they provided an analog report of their perceived direction of motion with an eye movement to a ring that surrounded the motion stimulus. Marmosets and humans exhibited similar trade-offs in speed vs. accuracy: errors were larger and reaction times were longer as the strength of the motion signal was reduced. Reverse correlation on the temporal fluctuations in motion direction revealed that both species exhibited short integration windows, however, marmosets had substantially less non-decision time than humans. Our results provide the first quantification of motion perception in the marmoset and demonstrate several advantages to using analog estimation tasks.

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Section: Discussion (1630 Words)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the neuroanatomy and basic sensory processing of visual motion stimuli have been studied in marmosets (Solomon et al, 2011;Zavitz et al, 2016;Chaplin et al, 2017), little is known about their perceptual abilities. Here, we introduce a novel motion estimation task that is ideally suited for studying motion perception in marmosets.…”

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confidence: 99%

Motion perception in the common marmoset

Cloherty

Yates

Graf

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…We also presented an 8ms full screen flash stimulus at 1Hz (100 repeats) to test for visually evoked potentials. Robust direction selective spiking responses have been demonstrated for MT neurons in responses to these stimuli in the same preparation (Chaplin et al, 2017).…”

Section: Visual Stimulimentioning

confidence: 82%

Auditory Motion Does Not Modulate Spiking Activity in the Middle Temporal and Medial Superior Temporal Visual Areas

Chaplin

Allitt

Hagan

et al. 2017

Preprint

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The integration of multiple sensory modalities is one of the key aspects of brain function, allowing animals to take advantage of concurrent sources of information to make more accurate perceptual judgments. For many years, it was thought that multisensory integration in the cerebral cortex only occurs in high-level "polysensory" association areas, but recent studies have demonstrated cross-modal influences in regions that were traditionally designated as unimodal. In particular, several human neuroimaging studies have reported that extrastriate areas involved in visual motion perception are also activated by auditory motion, and may integrate audio-visual motion cues. However, the exact nature and extent of the effects of auditory motion on the visual cortex have not been studied at the single neuron level. We recorded the spiking activity of neurons in the middle temporal (MT) and medial superior temporal (MST) areas of anesthetized marmoset monkeys upon presentation of unimodal stimuli (moving auditory or visual patterns), as well as bimodal stimuli (concurrent audio-visual motion). Despite robust, direction selective responses to visual motion, none of the sampled neurons responded to auditory motion stimuli. Moreover, concurrent moving auditory stimuli had no significant effect on the ability of single MT and MST neurons, or populations of simultaneously recorded neurons, to discriminate the direction of motion of visual stimuli (moving random dot patterns with varying levels of motion noise). Our findings suggest that MT and MST neurons do not process or integrate moving auditory cues.. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under aThe copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/204529 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online 2 Significance StatementMany studies have demonstrated that brain regions originally thought to be unisensory may play a role in multisensory processing. For example, some neuroimaging studies have found activity in regions involved in the processing of visual motion can be modified by auditory motion, but this is controversial. We tested whether the spiking activity of neurons in two visual motion processing areas of the primate brain, areas MT and MST, can be modulated by moving auditory stimuli. Our results revealed that neurons in these areas neither respond to auditory motion, nor change their responses to visual motion according to auditory motion cues. These findings call into question the idea that audio-visual integration occurs at early stages of processing in the extrastriate cortex.

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“…We also presented an 8 ms full screen flash stimulus at 1 Hz (100 repeats) to test for visually evoked potentials. Robust direction selective spiking responses have been demonstrated for MT neurons in responses to these stimuli in the same preparation (Chaplin et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…It is also possible that audiovisual integration would have been evident if different types of stimuli were used. However, MT neurons respond well, and in a direction selective manner, to many types of visual motion (bars: Albright, ; Lui, Dobiecki, Bourne, & Rosa, ; Maunsell & Van Essen, ; gratings: Movshon, Adelson, Gizzi, & Newsome, ; dot patterns: Britten et al., ; Chaplin et al., ; Solomon, Chen, Morley, & Solomon, ) and a relatively broad range of speeds. We thus regard as unlikely that MT cells would require very specific auditory stimuli to activate, or integrate, which were not covered within the frequency and ILD range of our broadband stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory motion does not modulate spiking activity in the middle temporal and medial superior temporal visual areas

Chaplin

Allitt

Hagan

et al. 2018

Eur J of Neuroscience

Self Cite

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The integration of multiple sensory modalities is a key aspect of brain function, allowing animals to take advantage of concurrent sources of information to make more accurate perceptual judgments. For many years, multisensory integration in the cerebral cortex was deemed to occur only in high-level "polysensory" association areas. However, more recent studies have suggested that cross-modal stimulation can also influence neural activity in areas traditionally considered to be unimodal. In particular, several human neuroimaging studies have reported that extrastriate areas involved in visual motion perception are also activated by auditory motion, and may integrate audiovisual motion cues. However, the exact nature and extent of the effects of auditory motion on the visual cortex have not been studied at the single neuron level. We recorded the spiking activity of neurons in the middle temporal (MT) and medial superior temporal (MST) areas of anesthetized marmoset monkeys upon presentation of unimodal stimuli (moving auditory or visual patterns), as well as bimodal stimuli (concurrent audiovisual motion). Despite robust, direction selective responses to visual motion, none of the sampled neurons responded to auditory motion stimuli. Moreover, concurrent moving auditory stimuli had no significant effect on the ability of single MT and MST neurons, or populations of simultaneously recorded neurons, to discriminate the direction of motion of visual stimuli (moving random dot patterns with varying levels of motion noise). Our findings do not support the hypothesis that direct interactions between MT, MST and areas low in the hierarchy of auditory areas underlie audiovisual motion integration.

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Sensitivity of Neurons in the Middle Temporal Area of Marmoset Monkeys to Random Dot Motion

Cited by 6 publications

References 56 publications

Motion perception in the common marmoset

Motion perception in the common marmoset

Auditory Motion Does Not Modulate Spiking Activity in the Middle Temporal and Medial Superior Temporal Visual Areas

Auditory motion does not modulate spiking activity in the middle temporal and medial superior temporal visual areas

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