Similar neural and perceptual masking effects of low-power optogenetic stimulation in primate V1

  1. Spencer Chin-Yu Chen
  2. Giacomo Benvenuti
  3. Yuzhi Chen
  4. Satwant Kumar
  5. Charu Ramakrishnan
  6. Karl Deisseroth
  7. Wilson S Geisler
  8. Eyal Seidemann  Is a corresponding author
  1. Rutgers University, United States
  2. The University of Texas at Austin, United States
  3. Stanford University, United States

Abstract

Can direct stimulation of primate V1 substitute for a visual stimulus and mimic its perceptual effect? To address this question, we developed an optical-genetic toolkit to 'read' neural population responses using widefield calcium imaging, while simultaneously using optogenetics to 'write' neural responses into V1 of behaving macaques. We focused on the phenomenon of visual masking, where detection of a dim target is significantly reduced by a co-localized medium-brightness mask [1, 2]. Using our toolkit, we tested whether V1 optogenetic stimulation can recapitulate the perceptual masking effect of a visual mask. We find that, similar to a visual mask, low-power optostimulation can significantly reduce visual detection sensitivity, that a sublinear interaction between visual and optogenetic evoked V1 responses could account for this perceptual effect, and that these neural and behavioral effects are spatially selective. Our toolkit and results open the door for further exploration of perceptual substitutions by direct stimulation of sensory cortex.

Data availability

The data and Matlab code for visualization are available on Dryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.00000003h.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Spencer Chin-Yu Chen

    Department of Neurosurgery, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Giacomo Benvenuti

    Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5234-6260
  3. Yuzhi Chen

    Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Satwant Kumar

    Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Charu Ramakrishnan

    Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Karl Deisseroth

    Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Wilson S Geisler

    Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Eyal Seidemann

    Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
    For correspondence
    eyal@austin.utexas.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2841-5948

Funding

NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (EY-016454)

  • Eyal Seidemann

NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (EY-024662)

  • Wilson S Geisler

NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (BRAIN U01-NS099720)

  • Wilson S Geisler
  • Eyal Seidemann

DARPA-NESD (N66001-17-C-4012)

  • Eyal Seidemann

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures have been approved by the University of Texas Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC protocol #AUP-2016-00274) and conform to NIH standards.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Joshua I Gold, University of Pennsylvania, United States

Version history

  1. Preprint posted: February 17, 2021 (view preprint)
  2. Received: March 21, 2021
  3. Accepted: January 3, 2022
  4. Accepted Manuscript published: January 4, 2022 (version 1)
  5. Version of Record published: January 18, 2022 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2022, Chen et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Spencer Chin-Yu Chen
  2. Giacomo Benvenuti
  3. Yuzhi Chen
  4. Satwant Kumar
  5. Charu Ramakrishnan
  6. Karl Deisseroth
  7. Wilson S Geisler
  8. Eyal Seidemann
(2022)
Similar neural and perceptual masking effects of low-power optogenetic stimulation in primate V1
eLife 11:e68393.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68393

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