Coding strategy for surface luminance switches in the primary visual cortex of the awake monkey

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27892-3
• Publication Date: 2022-01-12T11:02:59Z
• Authors: Yi Yang; Tian Wang; Yang Li; Weifeng Dai; Guanzhong Yang; Chuanliang Han; Yujie Wu; Dajun Xing
• Keywords: Male; Neurons; 0301 basic medicine; Science; Q; Haplorhini; Article; Contrast Sensitivity; 03 medical and health sciences; Primary Visual Cortex; Visual Perception; Animals; Perception; Wakefulness; Photic Stimulation; Visual Cortex

AbstractBoth surface luminance and edge contrast of an object are essential features for object identification. However, cortical processing of surface luminance remains unclear. In this study, we aim to understand how the primary visual cortex (V1) processes surface luminance information across its different layers. We report that edge-driven responses are stronger than surface-driven responses in V1 input layers, but luminance information is coded more accurately by surface responses. In V1 output layers, the advantage of edge over surface responses increased eight times and luminance information was coded more accurately at edges. Further analysis of neural dynamics shows that such substantial changes for neural responses and luminance coding are mainly due to non-local cortical inhibition in V1’s output layers. Our results suggest that non-local cortical inhibition modulates the responses elicited by the surfaces and edges of objects, and that switching the coding strategy in V1 promotes efficient coding for luminance.