IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-60731-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unsupervised learning of temporal regularities in visual cortical populations

Author

Listed:
  • Sorin Pojoga

    (Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas
    Center for Neural Systems Restoration, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Dept. of Neurosurgery)

  • Ariana Andrei

    (Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas
    Center for Neural Systems Restoration, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Dept. of Neurosurgery)

  • Valentin Dragoi

    (Center for Neural Systems Restoration, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Dept. of Neurosurgery
    Neuroengineering Initiative, Rice University, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Brain and Mind Research Institute, Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College)

Abstract

The brain’s ability to extract temporal information from dynamic stimuli in the environment is essential for everyday behavior. To extract temporal statistical regularities, neural circuits must possess the ability to measure, produce, and anticipate sensory events. Here we report that when neural populations in macaque primary visual cortex are triggered to exhibit a periodic response to a repetitive sequence of optogenetic laser flashes, they learn to accurately reproduce the temporal sequence even when light stimulation is turned off. Despite the fact that individual cells had a poor capacity to extract temporal information, the population of neurons reproduced the periodic sequence in a temporally precise manner. The same neural population could learn different frequencies of external stimulation, and the ability to extract temporal information was found in all cortical layers. These results demonstrate a remarkable ability of sensory cortical populations to extract and reproduce complex temporal structure from unsupervised external stimulation even when stimuli are perceptually irrelevant.

Suggested Citation

  • Sorin Pojoga & Ariana Andrei & Valentin Dragoi, 2025. "Unsupervised learning of temporal regularities in visual cortical populations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60731-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60731-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60731-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-60731-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aniek Schoups & Rufin Vogels & Ning Qian & Guy Orban, 2001. "Practising orientation identification improves orientation coding in V1 neurons," Nature, Nature, vol. 412(6846), pages 549-553, August.
    2. Jessica A. Cardin & Marie Carlén & Konstantinos Meletis & Ulf Knoblich & Feng Zhang & Karl Deisseroth & Li-Huei Tsai & Christopher I. Moore, 2009. "Driving fast-spiking cells induces gamma rhythm and controls sensory responses," Nature, Nature, vol. 459(7247), pages 663-667, June.
    3. Diego A. Gutnisky & Valentin Dragoi, 2008. "Adaptive coding of visual information in neural populations," Nature, Nature, vol. 452(7184), pages 220-224, March.
    4. David J. Foster & Matthew A. Wilson, 2006. "Reverse replay of behavioural sequences in hippocampal place cells during the awake state," Nature, Nature, vol. 440(7084), pages 680-683, March.
    5. Ariana R. Andrei & Sorin Pojoga & Roger Janz & Valentin Dragoi, 2019. "Integration of cortical population signals for visual perception," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nozomu H. Nakamura & Hidemasa Furue & Kenta Kobayashi & Yoshitaka Oku, 2023. "Hippocampal ensemble dynamics and memory performance are modulated by respiration during encoding," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Yu-Ang Cheng & Mehdi Sanayei & Xing Chen & Ke Jia & Sheng Li & Fang Fang & Takeo Watanabe & Alexander Thiele & Ru-Yuan Zhang, 2025. "A neural geometry approach comprehensively explains apparently conflicting models of visual perceptual learning," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 9(5), pages 1023-1040, May.
    3. Ashok Litwin-Kumar & Anne-Marie M Oswald & Nathaniel N Urban & Brent Doiron, 2011. "Balanced Synaptic Input Shapes the Correlation between Neural Spike Trains," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Hironobu Osaki & Moeko Kanaya & Yoshifumi Ueta & Mariko Miyata, 2022. "Distinct nociception processing in the dysgranular and barrel regions of the mouse somatosensory cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Sorinel A Oprisan & Xandre Clementsmith & Tamas Tompa & Antonieta Lavin, 2019. "Dopamine receptor antagonists effects on low-dimensional attractors of local field potentials in optogenetic mice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-39, October.
    6. Marta Huelin Gorriz & Masahiro Takigawa & Daniel Bendor, 2023. "The role of experience in prioritizing hippocampal replay," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Wensheng Sun & Dennis L Barbour, 2017. "Rate, not selectivity, determines neuronal population coding accuracy in auditory cortex," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    8. Arun Parajuli & Diego Gutnisky & Nitin Tandon & Valentin Dragoi, 2023. "Endogenous fluctuations in cortical state selectively enhance different modes of sensory processing in human temporal lobe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Usman Farooq & George Dragoi, 2024. "Experience of Euclidean geometry sculpts the development and dynamics of rodent hippocampal sequential cell assemblies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, December.
    10. repec:plo:pcbi00:1002354 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Chaogan Yan & Dongqiang Liu & Yong He & Qihong Zou & Chaozhe Zhu & Xinian Zuo & Xiangyu Long & Yufeng Zang, 2009. "Spontaneous Brain Activity in the Default Mode Network Is Sensitive to Different Resting-State Conditions with Limited Cognitive Load," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(5), pages 1-11, May.
    12. Zhewei Zhang & Yuji K. Takahashi & Marlian Montesinos-Cartegena & Thorsten Kahnt & Angela J. Langdon & Geoffrey Schoenbaum, 2024. "Expectancy-related changes in firing of dopamine neurons depend on hippocampus," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Jean-Paul Noel & Edoardo Balzani & Cristina Savin & Dora E. Angelaki, 2024. "Context-invariant beliefs are supported by dynamic reconfiguration of single unit functional connectivity in prefrontal cortex of male macaques," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Anli A. Liu & Simon Henin & Saman Abbaspoor & Anatol Bragin & Elizabeth A. Buffalo & Jordan S. Farrell & David J. Foster & Loren M. Frank & Tamara Gedankien & Jean Gotman & Jennifer A. Guidera & Kari , 2022. "A consensus statement on detection of hippocampal sharp wave ripples and differentiation from other fast oscillations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Hannah Tarder-Stoll & Christopher Baldassano & Mariam Aly, 2024. "The brain hierarchically represents the past and future during multistep anticipation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    16. Ari S. Benjamin & Ling-Qi Zhang & Cheng Qiu & Alan A. Stocker & Konrad P. Kording, 2022. "Efficient neural codes naturally emerge through gradient descent learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Carina Curto & Vladimir Itskov, 2008. "Cell Groups Reveal Structure of Stimulus Space," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(10), pages 1-13, October.
    18. Federico Rocchi & Carola Canella & Shahryar Noei & Daniel Gutierrez-Barragan & Ludovico Coletta & Alberto Galbusera & Alexia Stuefer & Stefano Vassanelli & Massimo Pasqualetti & Giuliano Iurilli & Ste, 2022. "Increased fMRI connectivity upon chemogenetic inhibition of the mouse prefrontal cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Lukas Grossberger & Francesco P Battaglia & Martin Vinck, 2018. "Unsupervised clustering of temporal patterns in high-dimensional neuronal ensembles using a novel dissimilarity measure," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-34, July.
    20. repec:plo:pone00:0074910 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Hefei Guan & Steven J. Middleton & Takafumi Inoue & Thomas J. McHugh, 2021. "Lateralization of CA1 assemblies in the absence of CA3 input," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    22. Geoffrey Terral & Evan Harrell & Gabriel Lepousez & Yohan Wards & Dinghuang Huang & Tiphaine Dolique & Giulio Casali & Antoine Nissant & Pierre-Marie Lledo & Guillaume Ferreira & Giovanni Marsicano & , 2024. "Endogenous cannabinoids in the piriform cortex tune olfactory perception," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60731-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.