Synaptic Basis for Contrast-Dependent Shifts in Functional Identity in Mouse V1

Abstract

A central transformation that occurs within mammalian visual cortex is the change from linear, polarity-sensitive responses to nonlinear, polarity-insensitive responses. These neurons are classically labelled as either simple or complex, respectively, on the basis of their response linearity (Skottun et al., 1991). While the difference between cell classes is clear when the stimulus strength is high, reducing stimulus strength diminishes the differences between the cell types and causes some complex cells to respond as simple cells (Crowder et al., 2007; van Kleef et al., 2010; Hietanen et al., 2013). To understand the synaptic basis for this shift in behavior, we used in vivo whole-cell rec..