Fig. 7: Ensembles are composed of neurons with different tuning properties.

a Example of a raster plot during visual stimuli highlighting an ensemble (onsemble-offsemble partnership) associated with a preferred orientation. Onsemble neuronal activity is represented in red shading, while offsemble neuronal activity is indicated in blue. Neurons are sorted and subdivided based on their individual tuning classification. Visual stimulation periods are indicated below raster plot, where pref represents the preferred ensemble orientation (in this example, 0°) and nonpref represents the other three nonpreferred orientations (in this example, 45°, 90°, and 135°). b Left, Drawing of a mouse visually stimulated adapted from Jesús Pérez-Ortega, Tzitzitlini Alejandre-García & Rafael Yuste (2021) Long-term stability of cortical ensembles eLife 10:e64449. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64449. Right, Venn diagram representing 100 pyramidal neurons in layer 2/3 of visual cortex during the onset of a visual stimulus presentation. Proportions were computed using data averaged from n = 12 mice. A group of neurons is activated (onsemble, in red), another group is inactivated (offsemble, in blue), and the third group remains uninvolved (nonparticipant population, in gray). Single-neuron analysis categorizes neurons as being tuned to the preferred orientation (pref), to a different orientation (nonpref), broadly tuned to multiple orientations (unspecific), associated with interstimulus periods (interstim), or untuned. Thick edges indicate neurons exclusive to the onsemble or offsemble of the preferred orientation while thin edges represent neurons shared within onsembles and within offsembles. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.