Sharp wave ripples in macaque V1 and V4 are modulated by top-down visual attention

Abstract

Sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) are highly synchronous neuronal activity events. They have been predominantly observed in the hippocampus during offline states such as pause in exploration, slow-wave sleep and quiescent wakefulness. SWRs have been linked to memory consolidation, spatial navigation, and spatial decision-making. Recently, SWRs have been reported during visual search, a form of remote spatial exploration, in macaque hippocampus. However, the association between SWRs and multiple forms of awake conscious and goal-directed behavior is unknown. We report that ripple activity occurs in macaque visual areas V1 and V4 during focused spatial attention. The frequency of ripples is modulated by characteristics of the stimuli, by spatial attention directed toward a receptive field, and by the size of the attentional focus. Critically, the monkeys reaction times in detecting behaviorally relevant stimulus changes was affected on trials with SWRs. These results show that ripple activity is not limited to hippocampal activity during offline states, rather they occur in the neocortex during active attentive states and vigilance behaviors.