Temporal dynamics of information content carried by neurons in the primary visual cortex

It is found that information is extractable and that it even lasts for several hundred milliseconds after the stimulus has been removed, suggesting nonlinear properties of cortical representations in a fast sequence of stimulus presentation.

Abstract

We use multi-electrode recordings from cat primary visual cortex and investigate whether a simple linear classifier can extract information about the presented stimuli. We find that information is extractable and that it even lasts for several hundred milliseconds after the stimulus has been removed. In a fast sequence of stimulus presentation, information about both new and old stimuli is present simultaneously and nonlinear relations between these stimuli can be extracted. These results suggest nonlinear properties of cortical representations. The important implications of these properties for the nonlinear brain theory are discussed.