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[Report] Selective modulation of cortical state during spatial attention

ScienceNOW - Fetched: December 1st, 2016, 3:00pm UTC

Neocortical activity is permeated with endogenously generated fluctuations, but how these dynamics affect goal-directed behavior remains a mystery. We found that ensemble neural activity in primate visual cortex spontaneously fluctuated between phases of vigorous (On) and faint (Off) spiking synchronously across cortical layers. These On-Off dynamics, reflecting global changes in cortical state, were also modulated at a local scale during selective attention. Moreover, the momentary phase of local ensemble activity predicted behavioral performance. Our results show that cortical state is controlled locally within a cortical map according to cognitive demands and reveal the impact of these local changes in cortical state on goal-directed behavior. Authors: Tatiana A. Engel, Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Marc A. Gieselmann, Alexander Thiele, Tirin Moore, Kwabena Boahen

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