Inhibitory silencing enhances encoding precision of neuronal ensembles

Neuronal ensembles are structured groups of coactive neurons associated with motor, sensory, and behavioral functions. However, how ensembles encode information remains unclear. To explore this, we investigated the responses of layer 2/3 visual cortical neurons in awake mice using two-photon volumetric calcium imaging during visual stimulation. We detected neuronal ensembles employing an unsupervised model-free algorithm. In response to visual stimuli, ensembles exhibited small trial-to-trial variability and high orientation selectivity. During an ensemble occurrence, besides neurons that were significantly activated by the stimulus, we also found neurons whose activity was significantly decreased in response. To distinguish between these two groups of neurons, we introduced the term “onsemble” for the significantly active neurons and “offsemble” for the silenced ones. Calcium decay kinetics in offsemble neurons significantly decreased during stimulus presentation, indicative of selecti...

神经元集群（Neuronal ensembles）是由协同激活神经元构成的结构化群体，与运动、感知及行为功能紧密关联。然而，神经元集群如何编码信息至今仍不明确。为探究该问题，本研究在视觉刺激过程中，采用双光子体积钙成像技术，记录了清醒小鼠2/3层视皮层神经元的响应活动。研究采用无监督无模型算法完成神经元集群的检测。在视觉刺激下，神经元集群表现出较低的试次间变异性与较高的方向选择性。在集群激活期间，除了被刺激显著激活的神经元外，本研究还发现了一批活动受到显著抑制的神经元。为区分这两类神经元，我们将受刺激显著激活的神经元命名为“onsemble”，将活动受抑制的神经元命名为“offsemble”。offsemble神经元的钙衰减动力学在刺激呈现期间显著降低，这提示其具有选择...