Dependence of contextual modulation in macaque V1 on interlaminar signal flow

In visual cortex, neural correlates of subjective perception can be
generated by modulation of activity from beyond the classical receptive
field (CRF). In macaque V1, activity generated by nonclassical receptive
field (nCRF) stimulation involves different intracortical circuitry than
activity generated by CRF stimulation, suggesting that interactions
between neurons across V1 layers differ under CRF and nCRF stimulus
conditions. Using Neuropixels probes, we measured border ownership
modulation within large, local populations of V1 neurons. We found that
neurons in single columns preferred the same side of objects located
outside of the CRF. In addition, we found that cross-correlations between
pairs of neurons situated across feedback/horizontal and input layers
differed between CRF and nCRF stimulation. Furthermore, independent of the
comparison with CRF stimulation, we observed that the magnitude of border
ownership modulation increased with the proportion of information flow
from feedback/horizontal layers to input layers. These results demonstrate
that the flow of signals between layers covaries with the degree to which
neurons integrate information from beyond the CRF.