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Abstract

Typically, neurons in sensory areas are highly interconnected. Coupling
two neurons can synchronize their activity and affect a variety of
single-cell properties, such as their stimulus tuning, firing rate or
gain. All of these factors must be considered to understand how two
neurons should be coupled to optimally process stimuli. We quantified
the functional effect of an interaction between two optic-flow
processing neurons (Vi and H1) in the fly (Lucilia sericata). Using a
generative model, we estimated a uni-directional coupling from H1 to
Vi. Especially at a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the coupling
strongly improved the information about optic-flow in Vi. We identified
two constraints confining the strength of the interaction. First, for
weak couplings, Vi benefited from inputs by H1 without a concomitant
shift of its stimulus tuning. Second, at both low and high SNR, the
coupling strength lay in a range in which the information carried by
single spikes is optimal.