Highlights d 2,488 single neurons recorded in macaque dlPFC, FEF, and LIP d Identification of four distinct cell classes from extracellular spike waveforms d Cell classes differ in firing statistics, response dynamics, and information coding d Cell classes are robust across cortical regions
Understanding the function of different neuronal cell types is key to understanding brain function. However, cell type diversity is typically overlooked in electrophysiological studies in awake behaving animals. Here, we show that four functionally distinct cell classes can be robustly identified from extracellular recordings in several cortical regions of awake behaving monkeys. We recorded extracellular spiking activity from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the frontal eye field (FEF), and the lateral intraparietal area of macaque monkeys during a visuomotor decision-making task. We employed unsupervised clustering of spike waveforms, which robustly dissociated four distinct cell classes across all three brain regions.The four cell classes were functionally distinct. They showed different baseline firing statistics, visual response dynamics, and coding of visual information. While cell class-specific baseline statistics were consistent across brain regions, response dynamics and information coding were regionally specific. Our results identify four waveform-based cell classes in primate cortex. This opens a new window to dissect and study the cell-type specific function of cortical circuits.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.