Granger causality analysis of neuronal information flow in the associative memory circuit of the macaque inferotemporal cortex

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25870142
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience; Brain biometrics
• Research Institution: National Institute of Radiological Sciences (2015); The University of Tokyo (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: Hirabayashi Toshiyuki 国立研究開発法人放射線医学総合研究所, 分子イメージング研究センター, 主任研究員 (60376423)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 霊長類 / 側頭葉 / 視覚表象 / 多細胞同時記録 / 局所神経回路

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In primates, neural representations of visual objects are hierarchically constructed along the ventral visual pathway. In this pathway, neural coding of a “novel” feature of visual objects is thought to emerge and become prevalent at a single cortical area as a result of processing in the area. We tested the possibility that a feature representation prevalent in a given cortical area emerges in the microcircuit of a hierarchically prior cortical area as a small number of prototypes and then becomes prevalent in the subsequent area. We recorded activities of multiple single neurons in each of hierarchically sequential areas TE and 36 of macaque temporal cortex and found the predicted convergent microcircuit for object-object association in the lower-order area TE. Associative codes were then built up over time in the microcircuit of the higher-order area 36. These results suggest a computational principle underlying sequentially elaborated object representations across cortical areas.

Free Research Field

認知神経生理学