Modulation of information flow in cortical circuits

How neuronal variability impacts neural codes is a central question in systems neuroscience, often with complex and model dependent answers. Most population models are parametric, with tacitly assumed structure of neuronal tuning and population variability. While these models provide key insights, they cannot inform how the physiology and circuit wiring of cortical networks impact information flow. In this work, we study information propagation in spatially ordered neuronal networks. We found that when the network exhibits stable firing rate activity then all available stimulus information is transmitted with a sufficiently large number of decoded neurons. However, if the network activity is in a pattern forming regime then the population-wide dynamics compromise information flow.  Further, we show that if one restricts a decoder to a subset of a cortical population, information within the subpopulation can be modulated even in the stable firing rate regime.