Fig. 2: V1 neurons are equally responsive to different spatial frequency bandwidths.

a Mean spatial frequency distribution from natural images (example images adapted from Tkacik G et al., “Natural images from the birthplace of the human eye “, PLoS ONE 6: e20409 (2011), n = 1077 images, shading shows s.e.m.). Single-cell selectivity was tested at specific spatial frequencies (dashed lines, Supplementary Fig. S2). b Same as (a) for broadband stimuli with different spatial frequency distributions (0.004 cpd, 0.04 cpd, and 0.4 cpd, n = 300 frames each). c Awake, head-fixed mice viewed differing orientation bandwidth stimuli while 2Photon-imaging V1 neural activity in layer 2/3. d Example session, showing V1 neural responses to different spatial frequency bandwidths (0.004 cpd, 0.04 cpd, 0.4 cpd, purple masks show responsive cells, scale bar: 100 μm, corresponding stimuli at top left). Traces show single-trial responses of 4 example cells with different spatial frequency bandwidth preferences (scale bar: 1 s, 20% ΔF/F). e Counts of responsive neurons to each spatial frequency bandwidth, normalized by the number of cells responding to 0.004 cpd bandwidth (n = 16 sessions). f Difference between mean response amplitude versus baseline for each orientation bandwidth. Shown are neurons with a significant response for at least one condition (603 of 3185 neurons, 19% ± 2% neurons per session; mean ± s.e.m.). The horizontal line shows the median narrow response amplitude. g Same as (f) for neurons that consistently responded to all bandwidths (68 neurons, 9% of responding cells per session). The horizontal line shows the median narrow response amplitude. h Same as (f) for neurons that preferentially responded to the narrow-band stimulus (left violin plots, 24% of responding cells per session, 133 in total), or the broadband stimulus (right violin plots, 26% of responding cells per session, 132 neurons in total). Box plots indicate the median (horizontal line), interquartile range (box bounds: 25th–75th percentiles), and whiskers (1.5 × interquartile range). The dotted line is the narrow-band median. No significant (Bonferroni correction for two tests, α = 0.025) differences from two-sided tests against the narrow condition: LME test (panel e) Wilcoxon signed rank (panels f, g) Wilcoxon ranked sum (panel h). Panel (c) was created in BioRender. Balla, E. https://BioRender.com/g05l789 (2025).