A Cross-Correlation Study among Neurons Recorded with Multi-Channel Electrodes in Areas 17 and 18 in the Cat

Abstract

The primary visual cortex located in the occipital lobe of a cats brain processes visual information that is converted into electrical signals through the lateral geniculate nucleus. The nerve cells of the primary visual cortex have a tendency to prefer particular visual stimuli and this is called response selectivity. Multilateral research regarding nerve cells with these characteristics have been conducted since the 1950s but there has not yet been any studies which clearly reveal connections between nerve cells with response selectivity. Therefore, this study collected neural signals through multichannel electrodes to verify connections between visual nerve cells using nerve cell reactions of 50 different visual stimuli. The collected nerve cells were stored as neural data using a data collection system and categorized by visual stimuli and of 100 channels, 31 channels with relatively clear reactions were selected. These 31 channels were divided into 6 cases according to stimuli type, channel number, and cell, and after cross correlation analysis, cross correlation values and graphs were drawn and finally, comparative analysis was performed. As a result, while connections with clear differences between nerve cells according to visual stimuli were not discovered, as cross correlation values of nerve cells for different channels during identical visual stimuli mostly appeared to be higher than cross correlation values for different visual stimuli, it was verified that connections between nerve cells that react to identical stimuli appear to be stronger.