dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAttentional modulation of firing rate and synchrony in a model cortical network
| Authors | Calin Buia, Paul Tiesinga |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0512021 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0512021 |
Abstract
When attention is directed into the receptive field of a V4 neuron, its contrast response curve is shifted to lower contrast values (Reynolds et al, 2000, Neuron 26:703). Attention also increases the coherence between neurons responding to the same stimulus (Fries et al, 2001, Science 291:1560). We studied how the firing rate and synchrony of a densely interconnected cortical network varied with contrast and how they were modulated by attention. We found that an increased driving current to the excitatory neurons increased the overall firing rate of the network, whereas variation of the driving current to inhibitory neurons modulated the synchrony of the network. We explain the synchrony modulation in terms of a locking phenomenon during which the ratio of excitatory to inhibitory firing rates is approximately constant for a range of driving current values. We explored the hypothesis that contrast is represented primarily as a drive to the excitatory neurons, whereas attention corresponds to a reduction in driving current to the inhibitory neurons. Using this hypothesis, the model reproduces the following experimental observations: (1) the firing rate of the excitatory neurons increases with contrast; (2) for high contrast stimuli, the firing rate saturates and the network synchronizes; (3) attention shifts the contrast response curve to lower contrast values; (4) attention leads to stronger synchronization that starts at a lower value of the contrast compared with the attend-away condition. In addition, it predicts that attention increases the delay between the inhibitory and excitatory synchronous volleys produced by the network, allowing the stimulus to recruit more downstream neurons.
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"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:34.395000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:34.395000Z",
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"abstract": "When attention is directed into the receptive field of a V4 neuron, its\ncontrast response curve is shifted to lower contrast values (Reynolds et al,\n2000, Neuron 26:703). Attention also increases the coherence between neurons\nresponding to the same stimulus (Fries et al, 2001, Science 291:1560). We\nstudied how the firing rate and synchrony of a densely interconnected cortical\nnetwork varied with contrast and how they were modulated by attention. We found\nthat an increased driving current to the excitatory neurons increased the\noverall firing rate of the network, whereas variation of the driving current to\ninhibitory neurons modulated the synchrony of the network. We explain the\nsynchrony modulation in terms of a locking phenomenon during which the ratio of\nexcitatory to inhibitory firing rates is approximately constant for a range of\ndriving current values. We explored the hypothesis that contrast is represented\nprimarily as a drive to the excitatory neurons, whereas attention corresponds\nto a reduction in driving current to the inhibitory neurons. Using this\nhypothesis, the model reproduces the following experimental observations: (1)\nthe firing rate of the excitatory neurons increases with contrast; (2) for high\ncontrast stimuli, the firing rate saturates and the network synchronizes; (3)\nattention shifts the contrast response curve to lower contrast values; (4)\nattention leads to stronger synchronization that starts at a lower value of the\ncontrast compared with the attend-away condition. In addition, it predicts that\nattention increases the delay between the inhibitory and excitatory synchronous\nvolleys produced by the network, allowing the stimulus to recruit more\ndownstream neurons.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0512021",
"authors": [
"Calin Buia",
"Paul Tiesinga"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.NC"
],
"title": "Attentional modulation of firing rate and synchrony in a model cortical network",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0512021"
},
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"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
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