Dong Yi, Mihalas Stefan, Qiu Fangtu, von der Heydt Rüdiger, Niebur Ernst
Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Vis. 2008 Nov 11;8(7):30.1-16. doi: 10.1167/8.7.30.
We tested the binding-by-synchrony hypothesis which proposes that object representations are formed by synchronizing spike activity between neurons that code features of the same object. We studied responses of 32 pairs of neurons recorded with microelectrodes 3 mm apart in the visual cortex of macaques performing a fixation task. Upon mapping the receptive fields of the neurons, a quadrilateral was generated so that two of its sides were centered in the receptive fields at the optimal orientations. This one-figure condition was compared with a two-figure condition in which the neurons were stimulated by two separate figures, keeping the local edges in the receptive fields identical. For each neuron, we also determined its border ownership selectivity (H. Zhou, H. S. Friedman, & R. von der Heydt, 2000). We examined both synchronization and correlation at nonzero time lag. After correcting for effects of the firing rate, we found that synchrony did not depend on the binding condition. However, finding synchrony in a pair of neurons was correlated with finding border-ownership selectivity in both members of the pair. This suggests that the synchrony reflected the connectivity in the network that generates border ownership assignment. Thus, we have not found evidence to support the binding-by-synchrony hypothesis.
我们测试了同步化绑定假说，该假说提出物体表征是通过对编码同一物体特征的神经元之间的尖峰活动进行同步化而形成的。我们研究了在执行固定任务的猕猴视觉皮层中，用相距3毫米的微电极记录的32对神经元的反应。在绘制神经元的感受野后，生成了一个四边形，使其两条边在感受野中以最佳方向为中心。将这种单图形条件与双图形条件进行比较，在双图形条件下，神经元由两个单独的图形刺激，同时保持感受野中的局部边缘相同。对于每个神经元，我们还确定了其边界所有权选择性（H. Zhou、H. S. Friedman和R. von der Heydt，2000）。我们研究了非零时间滞后时的同步性和相关性。在校正了放电率的影响后，我们发现同步性并不依赖于绑定条件。然而，在一对神经元中发现同步性与在该对神经元的两个成员中发现边界所有权选择性相关。这表明同步性反映了产生边界所有权分配的网络中的连接性。因此，我们没有找到支持同步化绑定假说的证据。
