Scholl, B., Thomas, C. I., Ryan, M. A., Kamasawa, N., & Fitzpatrick, D. (2021).
Cortical response selectivity derives from strength in numbers of synapses. Nature, 590(7844),
111-114. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03044-3
Two-photon imaging of spine and soma RFs and post hoc SBF-SEM of spine
ultrastructure
Ferret visual cortex
Offers direct evidence that a visual neuron’s selectivity is predictable from the
selectivity of neurons it receives synapses from.
“Using electron microscopy reconstruction of individual synapses as a metric of strength, we
find no evidence that strong synapses have a predominant role in the selectivity of cortical neuron
responses to visual stimuli. Instead, selectivity appears to arise from the total number of synapses
activated by different stimuli.