Multiple gamma rhythms carry distinct spatial frequency information in primary visual cortex

PLoS Biol. 2021 Dec 21;19(12):e3001466. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001466. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Gamma rhythms in many brain regions, including the primary visual cortex (V1), are thought to play a role in information processing. Here, we report a surprising finding of 3 narrowband gamma rhythms in V1 that processed distinct spatial frequency (SF) signals and had different neural origins. The low gamma (LG; 25 to 40 Hz) rhythm was generated at the V1 superficial layer and preferred a higher SF compared with spike activity, whereas both the medium gamma (MG; 40 to 65 Hz), generated at the cortical level, and the high gamma HG; (65 to 85 Hz), originated precortically, preferred lower SF information. Furthermore, compared with the rates of spike activity, the powers of the 3 gammas had better performance in discriminating the edge and surface of simple objects. These findings suggest that gamma rhythms reflect the neural dynamics of neural circuitries that process different SF information in the visual system, which may be crucial for multiplexing SF information and synchronizing different features of an object.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / physiology
  • Cats
  • Gamma Rhythm / physiology*
  • Neurons / physiology
  • Photic Stimulation / methods
  • Primary Visual Cortex / pathology
  • Primary Visual Cortex / physiology*
  • Visual Cortex / physiology
  • Visual Perception / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 32171033 (DX), National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 32100831 (TW), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DX), The 111 Project Grant (BP0719032) (DX), The Open Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning. (DX). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.