Data from: Stimulus background influences phase invariant coding by correlated neural activity

We recently reported that correlations between the activities of peripheral afferents mediate a phase invariant representation of natural communication stimuli that is refined across successive processing stages thereby leading to perception and behavior in the weakly electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus (Metzen et al., 2016). Here, we explore how phase invariant coding and perception of natural communication stimuli are affected by changes in the sinusoidal background over which they occur. We found that increasing background frequency led to phase locking, which decreased both detectability and phase invariant coding. Correlated afferent activity was a much better predictor of behavior as assessed from both invariance and detectability than single neuron activity. Thus, our results not only provide further evidence that correlated activity likely determines perception of natural communication signals, but also provide a novel explanation as to why these preferentially occur on top of low frequency as well as low intensity sinusoidal backgrounds.

我们此前曾报道，外周传入神经（peripheral afferents）的活动相关性可介导自然通讯刺激的相位不变表征（phase invariant representation），该表征会在连续加工阶段中得到优化，最终促使弱电鱼（weakly electric fish）短吻裸背电鳗（Apteronotus leptorhynchus）产生感知与行为（Metzen等人，2016）。本研究旨在探究自然通讯刺激的相位不变编码（phase invariant coding）与感知，会如何受到其所在正弦背景（sinusoidal background）变化的影响。我们发现，背景频率升高会引发相位锁定（phase locking）现象，同时降低可检测性与相位不变编码能力。相较于单个神经元活动（single neuron activity），相关传入神经活动能更好地预测行为表现，这一结论可从不变性与可检测性两项指标中得到验证。综上，本研究结果不仅进一步佐证了相关活动可能决定自然通讯信号感知这一观点，同时也为这类信号优先出现在低频、低强度正弦背景之上的现象提供了全新解释。