Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Neural processing of sensory information is strongly influenced by context. For instance, cortical responses are reduced to predictable stimuli, while responses are increased to novel stimuli that deviate from contextual regularities. Such bidirectional modulation based on preceding sensory context is likely a critical component or manifestation of attention, learning, and behavior, yet how it arises in cortical circuits remains unclear. Using volumetric two-photon calcium imaging and local field potentials in primary visual cortex (V1) from awake mice presented with visual "oddball" paradigms, we identify both reductions and augmentations of stimulus-evoked responses depending, on whether the stimulus was redundant or deviant, respectively. Interestingly, deviance-augmented responses were limited to a specific subset of neurons mostly in supragranular layers. These deviance-detecting cells were spatially intermixed with other visually responsive neurons and were functionally correlated, forming a neuronal ensemble. Optogenetic suppression of prefrontal inputs to V1 reduced the contextual selectivity of deviance-detecting ensembles, demonstrating a causal role for top-down inputs. The presence of specialized context-selective ensembles in primary sensory cortex, modulated by higher cortical areas, provides a circuit substrate for the brain's construction and selection of prediction errors, computations which are key for survival and deficient in many psychiatric disorders.
Institution: Columbia University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Whitehall Foundation, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Eye Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Awards: Optical methods for imaging and manipulating dendritic spines in vivo, G1480873338, Fronto-sensory circuit mechanisms of perceptual novelty processing, G2242383353, Fronto-sensory circuit mechanisms of perceptual novelty processing, Two-photon analysis of circuit-level mechanisms of schizophrenia biomarkers, G5730904948, Imaging Functional Connectivity in Visual Cortex, G643528732, CRCNS: Modeling the nanophysiology of dendritic spines, Functional connectomics of the neocortical microcircuit, Effect of GABAergic inhibition of dendritic spines on synaptic pruning in the medial prefrontal cortex during adolescence, Holographic imprinting of novelty detection in mice, Cellular and molecular foundations of biomedical science
OpenAlex ID: W3149701525