RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Transformation of Independent Oscillatory Inputs into Temporally Precise Rate Codes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 054163
DO 10.1101/054163
A1 David Tingley
A1 Andrew A. Alexander
A1 Laleh K. Quinn
A1 Andrea A. Chiba
A1 Douglas Nitz
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/18/054163.abstract
AB Complex behaviors demand temporal coordination among functionally distinct brain regions. The basal forebrain’s afferent and efferent structure suggests a capacity for mediating such coordination. During performance of a selective attention task, synaptic activity in this region was dominated by four amplitude-independent oscillations temporally organized by the phase of the slowest, a theta rhythm. Further, oscillatory amplitudes were precisely organized by task epoch and a robust input/output transform, from synchronous synaptic activity to spiking rates of basal forebrain neurons, was identified. For many neurons, spiking was temporally organized as phase precessing sequences against theta band field potential oscillations. Remarkably, theta phase precession advanced in parallel to task progression, rather than absolute spatial location or time. Together, the findings reveal a process by which associative brain regions can integrate independent oscillatory inputs and transform them into sequence-specific, rate-coded outputs that are adaptive to the pace with which organisms interact with their environment.