Task difficulty modulates the activity of specific neuronal populations in primary visual cortex.

@article{Chen+Alonso2008, abstract = {Spatial attention enhances our ability to detect stimuli at restricted regions of the visual field. This enhancement is thought to depend on the difficulty of the task being performed, but the underlying neuronal mechanisms for this dependency remain largely unknown. We found that task difficulty modulates neuronal firing rate at the earliest stages of cortical visual processing (area V1) in monkey (Macaca mulatta). These modulations were spatially specific: increasing task difficulty enhanced V1 neuronal firing rate at the focus of attention and suppressed it in regions surrounding the focus. Moreover, we found that response enhancement and suppression are mediated by distinct populations of neurons that differ in direction selectivity, spike width, interspike-interval distribution and contrast sensitivity. Our results provide strong support for center-surround models of spatial attention and suggest that task difficulty modulates the activity of specific populations of neurons in the primary visual cortex.}, address = {Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, New York 10036, USA.}, author = {Chen, Yao and Martinez-Conde, Susana and Macknik, Stephen L. L. and Bereshpolova, Yulia and Swadlow, Harvey A. A. and Alonso, Jose-Manuel M. }, citeulike-article-id = {3006894}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.2147}, issn = {1097-6256}, journal = {Nature neuroscience}, keywords = {attention, celltypes, difficulty, v1}, month = {July}, number = {8}, pages = {974--982}, posted-at = {2008-08-27 19:35:04}, priority = {0}, title = {Task difficulty modulates the activity of specific neuronal populations in primary visual cortex.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.2147}, volume = {11}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - Chen+Alonso2008 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3006894 TI - Task difficulty modulates the activity of specific neuronal populations in primary visual cortex. JF - Nature neuroscience VL - 11 IS - 8 SP - 974 EP - 982 AD - Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, New York 10036, USA. SN - 1097-6256 N2 - Spatial attention enhances our ability to detect stimuli at restricted regions of the visual field. This enhancement is thought to depend on the difficulty of the task being performed, but the underlying neuronal mechanisms for this dependency remain largely unknown. We found that task difficulty modulates neuronal firing rate at the earliest stages of cortical visual processing (area V1) in monkey (Macaca mulatta). These modulations were spatially specific: increasing task difficulty enhanced V1 neuronal firing rate at the focus of attention and suppressed it in regions surrounding the focus. Moreover, we found that response enhancement and suppression are mediated by distinct populations of neurons that differ in direction selectivity, spike width, interspike-interval distribution and contrast sensitivity. Our results provide strong support for center-surround models of spatial attention and suggest that task difficulty modulates the activity of specific populations of neurons in the primary visual cortex. KW - attention KW - celltypes KW - difficulty KW - v1 AU - Chen, Yao AU - Martinez-Conde, Susana AU - Macknik, Stephen AU - Bereshpolova, Yulia AU - Swadlow, Harvey AU - Alonso, Jose-Manuel PY - 2008/07/06/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.2147 ER -