Valentin Dragoi, UT-Houston Medical School

Description: Cortical layers are ubiquitous structures throughout neocortex that consist of highly recurrent, local, networks that communicate among each other to influence the information encoded in population activity. In recent years, significant progress was made in our understanding of differences in response properties of neurons in different cortical layers, yet whether neuronal populations encode information in a laminar-specific manner remains unknown. We will examine this issue in macaque primary visual cortex (V1) while animals will perform a behavioral task. Specifically, neuronal activity will be recorded using multiple electrodes across all cortical layers. We will test whether the capacity of neurons in different cortical layers to encode information is related to behavioral performance in an orientation discrimination task. We will relate the degree of neuronal synchrony, mainly in the gamma frequency range (30-80 Hz), in different cortical layers to the observed changes in behavioral performance. The results of the proposed project can potentially shed light on one of the long standing mysteries in neuroscience regarding the functional significance of cortical layers in adult neocortex.