Model-based decoupling of evoked and spontaneous neural activity in calcium imaging data

PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Nov 30;16(11):e1008330. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008330. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Abstract

The pattern of neural activity evoked by a stimulus can be substantially affected by ongoing spontaneous activity. Separating these two types of activity is particularly important for calcium imaging data given the slow temporal dynamics of calcium indicators. Here we present a statistical model that decouples stimulus-driven activity from low dimensional spontaneous activity in this case. The model identifies hidden factors giving rise to spontaneous activity while jointly estimating stimulus tuning properties that account for the confounding effects that these factors introduce. By applying our model to data from zebrafish optic tectum and mouse visual cortex, we obtain quantitative measurements of the extent that neurons in each case are driven by evoked activity, spontaneous activity, and their interaction. By not averaging away potentially important information encoded in spontaneous activity, this broadly applicable model brings new insight into population-level neural activity within single trials.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Calcium / physiology*
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual*
  • Fluorescence
  • Mice
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Superior Colliculi / cytology
  • Superior Colliculi / physiology
  • Visual Cortex / cytology
  • Visual Cortex / physiology
  • Zebrafish

Substances

  • Calcium

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Projects 170102263 and 180100636 awarded to G.J.G (www.arc.gov.au). M.A.T. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.