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V B Polyanskii

Publications and source records attributed to V B Polyanskii.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Computation of color and brightness differences by rabbit visual cortex neurons.

Extracellular recording of the activity of 54 neurons in the rabbit visual cortex in responses to substitutions of eight colored and eight monochromatic stimuli in pairs was studied. Stimuli were uniform flashes of light displayed on an SVGA monitor and illuminated the whole retina. The responses of phasic neurons showed an initial discharge (50-90 msec from the moment of the change in stimulus), associated with the brightness or color difference between the stimuli. These "discrimination discharges" were used to construct an 8 x 8 matrix for each neuron, showing the mean number of spikes per sec in responses to changes in different pairs of stimuli. Processing of the matrix by factor analysis identified the major factors determining the axes of the sensory space. A brightness space with only two dimensions, with darkness and brightness orthogonal axes, was seen for 30% of neurons. A four-dimensional color space was seen in 22% of neurons, with two color and two achromatic axes. The sensory space of these neurons was similar to the spaces obtained by analyzing the early components of visual evoked potentials in rabbits induced by changes in color stimuli and behavioral operant responses in conditioned reflex color differentiation. The fundamental coincidence of the sensory spaces obtained by different methods identifies the general nature of the principle of vector coding and the existence of special neuronal mechanisms for detection of color and brightness differences in the visual field.

Action Potentials↗

Limited plasticity of difference neurons in the visual cortex and hippocampus in rabbits during the oddball (random substitutions) test.

The activity of 41 visual cortex neurons and 20 hippocampal field CA1 neurons was studied in rabbits during application of the oddball stimulation paradigm using color stimuli of different intensities. Among these cells, about one third were plastic cells (34% of cortical cells and 37% of hippocampal cells). These neurons showed significant increases in late responses, at times 200-500 and 200-1000 msec for visual cortex neurons and 300-550 msec for hippocampal neurons, to rare deviant stimuli of lesser intensity as compared with responses to the frequent standard stimuli of greater intensity. The initial peak of the response (40-120 msec), the "difference discharge," remained stable in responses to deviant and standard stimuli throughout the experiment. It is suggested that the strengthening of the late components of neuron responses to rare deviant stimuli (limited plasticity) reflects inclusion of the mechanisms of the orientational reflex.

Animals↗

Reflection of an orienting reflex in the phases of evoked potentials in the rabbit visual cortex and hippocampus during substitution of stimulus intensity.

Experiments on conscious rabbits were performed using the oddball paradigm, in which a rare (deviant) and common (standard) stimuli were of the same color but different intensities. Deviant stimuli were of lesser intensity. Recordings were made of evoked potentials induced by series of uniform deviant stimuli (without using standard stimuli), which were presented at the beginning and end of stimulation. Visual evoked potentials recorded in response to deviant stimuli in the visual cortex and hippocampus showed increases in the amplitudes of phases, shifted towards positivity as compared with responses to standard stimuli and uniform deviant stimuli at the beginning and end of stimulus blocks. Significant changes affected phases P1 and P2 of visual evoked potentials in the cortex and phases P1, N1, and P2 in the hippocampus. The most significant increase in evoked potentials in the cortex was seen for the P2 peak (P130). It is suggested that changes in responses to oddball-deviant stimuli result from an orienting reflex to rare, unexpected stimuli and that the P2 (P130) peak in the cortex is associated with transmission of information regarding changes in the intensity of the light. The amplitude of this peak was shown to be decreased in responses to uniform deviant stimuli at the beginning and end of stimulus blocks. It was also demonstrated that the clearest and most contrasting changes in visual evoked potentials in responses to deviant and standard stimuli were seen with the smallest differences in intensity between these types of stimulus, this reflecting increases in the orienting reflex at threshold differences.

Animals↗

The orientating reflex: the "targeting reaction" and "searchlight of attention".

A concept of the orientating reflex is presented, based on the principle of vector coding of cognitive and executive processes. The orientating reflex is a complex of orientating reactions of motor, autonomic, and subjective types, accentuating new and significant stimuli. Two main systems form the orientating reflex: the "targeting reaction" and the "searchlight of attention:" In the visual system, the targeting reaction ensures that the image of the object falls onto the fovea; this is mediated by involvement of premotor neurons which are excited by saccade command neurons in the superior colliculi. The "searchlight of attention" is activated as a result of resonance within the gamma frequency range, selectively enhancing cortical detectors and involving the reticular nucleus of the thalamus. Novelty signals arise in novelty neurons of the hippocampus. The synaptic weightings of neocortical detectors for hippocampal novelty neurons is initially characterized by high efficiency, which assigns a significant level of excitation of these neurons to the new stimulus. During repeated stimulation, the synaptic weightings of all the detectors representing a given stimulus decrease, with the result that the novelty signal becomes weaker. When the stimulus changes, it acts on other detectors, whose weightings for novelty neurons remain high, which strengthens the novelty signal. Decreases in the synaptic weightings on repetition of a standard stimulus form a trace of this stimulus in the novelty neurons - this is the "neural model of the stimulus." The novelty signal is determined by the non-concordance of the new stimulus with this "neural model," which is formed under the influence of the standard stimulus. The greater the difference between the new stimulus and the previously formed neural model, the stronger the novelty signal.

Animals↗