@article {67234,
	title = {High-precision coding in visual cortex.},
	journal = {Cell},
	volume = {184},
	year = {2021},
	month = {2021 May 13},
	pages = {2767-78},
	abstract = {<p>Individual neurons in visual cortex provide the brain with unreliable estimates of visual features. It is not known whether the single-neuron variability is correlated across large neural populations, thus impairing the global encoding of stimuli. We recorded simultaneously from up to 50,000 neurons in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) and in higher order visual areas and measured stimulus discrimination thresholds of 0.35{\textdegree} and 0.37{\textdegree}, respectively, in an orientation decoding task. These neural thresholds were almost 100 times smaller than the behavioral discrimination thresholds reported in mice. This discrepancy could not be explained by stimulus properties or arousal states. Furthermore, behavioral variability during a sensory discrimination task could not be explained by neural variability in V1. Instead, behavior-related neural activity arose dynamically across a network of non-sensory brain areas. These results imply that perceptual discrimination in mice is limited by downstream decoders, not by neural noise in sensory representations.</p>
},
	issn = {1097-4172},
	doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.042},
	author = {Stringer, Carsen and Michaelos, Michalis and Tsyboulski, Dmitri and Lindo, Sarah E and Pachitariu, Marius}
}
@article {65752,
	title = {High precision coding in visual cortex},
	journal = {BioRxiv},
	year = {2019},
	month = {06/2019},
	pages = {679324},
	abstract = {<p>Single neurons in visual cortex provide unreliable measurements of visual features due to their high trial-to-trial variability. It is not known if this {\textquotedblleft}noise{\textquotedblright} extends its effects over large neural populations to impair the global encoding of sensory stimuli. We recorded simultaneously from \~{}20,000 neurons in mouse visual cortex and found that the neural population had discrimination thresholds of 0.3{\textdegree} in an orientation decoding task. These thresholds are \~{}100 times smaller than those reported behaviorally in mice. The discrepancy between neural and behavioral discrimination could not be explained by the types of stimuli we used, by behavioral states or by the sequential nature of trial-by-trial perceptual learning tasks. These results imply that the limits of sensory perception in mice are not set by neural noise in sensory cortex, but by the limitations of downstream decoders.</p>
},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1101/679324},
	author = {Stringer, Carsen and Michaelos, Michalis and Pachitariu, Marius}
}
