Lg. Nowak et al., Cross-correlation study of the temporal interactions between areas V1 and V2 of the macaque monkey, J NEUROPHYS, 81(3), 1999, pp. 1057-1074
Cross-correlation studies performed in cat visual cortex have shown that ne
urons in different cortical areas of the same hemisphere or in correspondin
g areas of opposite hemispheres tend to synchronize their activities. The p
resence of synchronization may be related to the parallel organization of t
he cat visual system, in which different cortical areas can be activated in
parallel from the lateral geniculate nucleus. We wanted to determine wheth
er interareal synchronization of firing can also be observed in the monkey,
in which cortical areas are thought to be organized in a hierarchy spannin
g different levels. Cross-correlation histograms (CCHs) were calculated fro
m pairs of single or pairs of multiunit activities simultaneously recorded
in areas V1 and V2 of paralyzed and anesthetized macaque monkeys. Moving ba
rs and flashed bars were used as stimuli. The shift predictor was calculate
d and subtracted from the raw CCH to reveal interactions of neuronal origin
in isolation. Significant CCH peaks, indicating interactions of neuronal o
rigin, were obtained in 11% of the dual single-unit recordings and 46% of t
he dual multiunit recordings with moving bars. The incidence of nonflat CCH
s with flashed bars was 29 and 78%, respectively. For the pairs of recordin
g sites where both flashed and moving stimuli were used, the incidences of
significant CCHs were very similar. Three types of peaks were distinguished
on the basis of their width at half-height: T (<16 ms), C (between 16 and
180 ms), and H peaks (>180 ms). T peaks were very rarely observed (<1% in s
ingle-unit recordings). H peaks were observed in 7-16% of the single-unit C
CHs, and C peaks in 6-16%, depending on the stimulus used. C and H peaks we
re observed more often when the receptive fields were overlapping or distan
t by <2 degrees. To test for the presence of synchronization between neuron
s in areas V1 and V2, we measured the position of the CCH peak with respect
to the origin of the time axis of the CCH. Only in the case of a few T pea
ks did we find displaced peaks, indicating a possible drive of the V2 neuro
n by the simultaneously recorded V1 cell. All the other peaks were either c
entered on the origin or overlapped the origin of time with their upper hal
ves. Thus similarly to what has been reported for the cat, neurons belongin
g to different cortical areas in the monkey tend to synchronize the time of
emission of their action potentials with three different levels of tempora
l precision. For peaks calculated from hashed stimuli, we compared the peak
position with the difference between latencies of V1 and V2 neurons. There
was a clear correlation for single-unit pairs in the case of C peaks. Thus
the position of a C peak on the time axis appears to reflect the order of
visual activation of the correlated neurons. The coupling strength for H pe
aks was smaller during Visual drive compared with spontaneous activity. On
the contrary, C peaks were seen more often and were stronger during visual
stimulation than during spontaneous activity. This suggests that C-type syn
chronization is associated with the processing of visual information. The o
rigin of synchronized activity in a serially organized system is discussed.