1
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Dias RF, Rajan R, Baeta M, Belbut B, Marques T, Petreanu L. Visual experience reduces the spatial redundancy between cortical feedback inputs and primary visual cortex neurons. Neuron 2024:S0896-6273(24)00531-2. [PMID: 39137776 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 06/11/2024] [Accepted: 07/14/2024] [Indexed: 08/15/2024]
Abstract
The role of experience in the organization of cortical feedback (FB) remains unknown. We measured the effects of manipulating visual experience on the retinotopic specificity of supragranular and infragranular projections from the lateromedial (LM) visual area to layer (L)1 of the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). LM inputs were, on average, retinotopically matched with V1 neurons in normally and dark-reared mice, but visual exposure reduced the fraction of spatially overlapping inputs to V1. FB inputs from L5 conveyed more surround information to V1 than those from L2/3. The organization of LM inputs from L5 depended on their orientation preference and was disrupted by dark rearing. These observations were recapitulated by a model where visual experience minimizes receptive field overlap between LM inputs and V1 neurons. Our results provide a mechanism for the dependency of surround modulations on visual experience and suggest how expected interarea coactivation patterns are learned in cortical circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo F Dias
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Radhika Rajan
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Margarida Baeta
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Beatriz Belbut
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Tiago Marques
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Leopoldo Petreanu
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal.
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2
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Zhu M, Kuhlman SJ, Barth AL. Transient enhancement of stimulus-evoked activity in neocortex during sensory learning. Learn Mem 2024; 31:a053870. [PMID: 38955432 PMCID: PMC11261211 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053870.123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
Synaptic potentiation has been linked to learning in sensory cortex, but the connection between this potentiation and increased sensory-evoked neural activity is not clear. Here, we used longitudinal in vivo Ca2+ imaging in the barrel cortex of awake mice to test the hypothesis that increased excitatory synaptic strength during the learning of a whisker-dependent sensory-association task would be correlated with enhanced stimulus-evoked firing. To isolate stimulus-evoked responses from dynamic, task-related activity, imaging was performed outside of the training context. Although prior studies indicate that multiwhisker stimuli drive robust subthreshold activity, we observed sparse activation of L2/3 pyramidal (Pyr) neurons in both control and trained mice. Despite evidence for excitatory synaptic strengthening at thalamocortical and intracortical synapses in this brain area at the onset of learning-indeed, under our imaging conditions thalamocortical axons were robustly activated-we observed that L2/3 Pyr neurons in somatosensory (barrel) cortex displayed only modest increases in stimulus-evoked activity that were concentrated at the onset of training. Activity renormalized over longer training periods. In contrast, when stimuli and rewards were uncoupled in a pseudotraining paradigm, stimulus-evoked activity in L2/3 Pyr neurons was significantly suppressed. These findings indicate that sensory-association training but not sensory stimulation without coupled rewards may briefly enhance sensory-evoked activity, a phenomenon that might help link sensory input to behavioral outcomes at the onset of learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mo Zhu
- Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
| | - Sandra J Kuhlman
- Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
| | - Alison L Barth
- Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
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3
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Wyrick DG, Cain N, Larsen RS, Lecoq J, Valley M, Ahmed R, Bowlus J, Boyer G, Caldejon S, Casal L, Chvilicek M, DePartee M, Groblewski PA, Huang C, Johnson K, Kato I, Larkin J, Lee E, Liang E, Luviano J, Mace K, Nayan C, Nguyen T, Reding M, Seid S, Sevigny J, Stoecklin M, Williford A, Choi H, Garrett M, Mazzucato L. Differential encoding of temporal context and expectation under representational drift across hierarchically connected areas. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.06.02.543483. [PMID: 37333203 PMCID: PMC10274646 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.02.543483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/20/2023]
Abstract
The classic view that neural populations in sensory cortices preferentially encode responses to incoming stimuli has been strongly challenged by recent experimental studies. Despite the fact that a large fraction of variance of visual responses in rodents can be attributed to behavioral state and movements, trial-history, and salience, the effects of contextual modulations and expectations on sensory-evoked responses in visual and association areas remain elusive. Here, we present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study showing that hierarchically connected visual and association areas differentially encode the temporal context and expectation of naturalistic visual stimuli, consistent with the theory of hierarchical predictive coding. We measured neural responses to expected and unexpected sequences of natural scenes in the primary visual cortex (V1), the posterior medial higher order visual area (PM), and retrosplenial cortex (RSP) using 2-photon imaging in behaving mice collected through the Allen Institute Mindscope's OpenScope program. We found that information about image identity in neural population activity depended on the temporal context of transitions preceding each scene, and decreased along the hierarchy. Furthermore, our analyses revealed that the conjunctive encoding of temporal context and image identity was modulated by expectations of sequential events. In V1 and PM, we found enhanced and specific responses to unexpected oddball images, signaling stimulus-specific expectation violation. In contrast, in RSP the population response to oddball presentation recapitulated the missing expected image rather than the oddball image. These differential responses along the hierarchy are consistent with classic theories of hierarchical predictive coding whereby higher areas encode predictions and lower areas encode deviations from expectation. We further found evidence for drift in visual responses on the timescale of minutes. Although activity drift was present in all areas, population responses in V1 and PM, but not in RSP, maintained stable encoding of visual information and representational geometry. Instead we found that RSP drift was independent of stimulus information, suggesting a role in generating an internal model of the environment in the temporal domain. Overall, our results establish temporal context and expectation as substantial encoding dimensions in the visual cortex subject to fast representational drift and suggest that hierarchically connected areas instantiate a predictive coding mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- David G Wyrick
- Department of Biology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Nicholas Cain
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | - Jérôme Lecoq
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Matthew Valley
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Ruweida Ahmed
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Jessica Bowlus
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | | | - Linzy Casal
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | | | | | - Cindy Huang
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | - India Kato
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Josh Larkin
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Eric Lee
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | | | - Kyla Mace
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Chelsea Nayan
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | - Melissa Reding
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Sam Seid
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Joshua Sevigny
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | | | - Ali Williford
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Hannah Choi
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
- School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Oregon
| | - Marina Garrett
- Allen Institute, Mindscope program, University of Oregon
| | - Luca Mazzucato
- Department of Biology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon
- Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Oregon
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4
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Jeon BB, Fuchs T, Chase SM, Kuhlman SJ. Visual experience has opposing influences on the quality of stimulus representation in adult primary visual cortex. eLife 2022; 11:80361. [PMID: 36321876 PMCID: PMC9629826 DOI: 10.7554/elife.80361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Transient dark exposure, typically 7–10 days in duration, followed by light reintroduction is an emerging treatment for improving the restoration of vision in amblyopic subjects whose occlusion is removed in adulthood. Dark exposure initiates homeostatic mechanisms that together with light-induced changes in cellular signaling pathways result in the re-engagement of juvenile-like plasticity in the adult such that previously deprived inputs can gain cortical territory. It is possible that dark exposure itself degrades visual responses, and this could place constraints on the optimal duration of dark exposure treatment. To determine whether eight days of dark exposure has a lasting negative impact on responses to classic grating stimuli, neural activity was recorded before and after dark exposure in awake head-fixed mice using two-photon calcium imaging. Neural discriminability, assessed using classifiers, was transiently reduced following dark exposure; a decrease in response reliability across a broad range of spatial frequencies likely contributed to the disruption. Both discriminability and reliability recovered. Fixed classifiers were used to demonstrate that stimulus representation rebounded to the original, pre-deprivation state, thus dark exposure did not appear to have a lasting negative impact on visual processing. Unexpectedly, we found that dark exposure significantly stabilized orientation preference and signal correlation. Our results reveal that natural vision exerts a disrupting influence on the stability of stimulus preference for classic grating stimuli and, at the same time, improves neural discriminability for both low and high-spatial frequency stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian B Jeon
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States
| | - Thomas Fuchs
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States
| | - Steven M Chase
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States
| | - Sandra J Kuhlman
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States.,Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States
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5
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Existing function in primary visual cortex is not perturbed by new skill acquisition of a non-matched sensory task. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3638. [PMID: 35752622 PMCID: PMC9233699 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31440-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Acquisition of new skills has the potential to disturb existing network function. To directly assess whether previously acquired cortical function is altered during learning, mice were trained in an abstract task in which selected activity patterns were rewarded using an optical brain-computer interface device coupled to primary visual cortex (V1) neurons. Excitatory neurons were longitudinally recorded using 2-photon calcium imaging. Despite significant changes in local neural activity during task performance, tuning properties and stimulus encoding assessed outside of the trained context were not perturbed. Similarly, stimulus tuning was stable in neurons that remained responsive following a different, visual discrimination training task. However, visual discrimination training increased the rate of representational drift. Our results indicate that while some forms of perceptual learning may modify the contribution of individual neurons to stimulus encoding, new skill learning is not inherently disruptive to the quality of stimulus representation in adult V1.
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6
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Zhang Y, Bu T, Zhang J, Tang S, Yu Z, Liu JK, Huang T. Decoding Pixel-Level Image Features from Two-Photon Calcium Signals of Macaque Visual Cortex. Neural Comput 2022; 34:1369-1397. [PMID: 35534008 DOI: 10.1162/neco_a_01498] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Images of visual scenes comprise essential features important for visual cognition of the brain. The complexity of visual features lies at different levels, from simple artificial patterns to natural images with different scenes. It has been a focus of using stimulus images to predict neural responses. However, it remains unclear how to extract features from neuronal responses. Here we address this question by leveraging two-photon calcium neural data recorded from the visual cortex of awake macaque monkeys. With stimuli including various categories of artificial patterns and diverse scenes of natural images, we employed a deep neural network decoder inspired by image segmentation technique. Consistent with the notation of sparse coding for natural images, a few neurons with stronger responses dominated the decoding performance, whereas decoding of ar tificial patterns needs a large number of neurons. When natural images using the model pretrained on artificial patterns are decoded, salient features of natural scenes can be extracted, as well as the conventional category information. Altogether, our results give a new perspective on studying neural encoding principles using reverse-engineering decoding strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yijun Zhang
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240.,Department of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Peking 100871, P.R.C.
| | - Tong Bu
- Department of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R.C.
| | - Jiyuan Zhang
- Department of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R.C.
| | - Shiming Tang
- School of Life Sciences and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R.C.
| | - Zhaofei Yu
- Department of Computer Science and Technology and In stitute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R.C.
| | - Jian K Liu
- School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
| | - Tiejun Huang
- Department of Computer Science and Technology and Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R.C.,Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing 100190, P.R.C.
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7
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Skyberg R, Tanabe S, Chen H, Cang J. Coarse-to-fine processing drives the efficient coding of natural scenes in mouse visual cortex. Cell Rep 2022; 38:110606. [PMID: 35354030 PMCID: PMC9189856 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
The visual system processes sensory inputs sequentially, perceiving coarse information before fine details. Here we study the neural basis of coarse-to-fine processing and its computational benefits in natural vision. We find that primary visual cortical neurons in awake mice respond to natural scenes in a coarse-to-fine manner, primarily driven by individual neurons rapidly shifting their spatial frequency preference from low to high over a brief response period. This shift transforms the population response in a way that counteracts the statistical regularities of natural scenes, thereby reducing redundancy and generating a more efficient neural representation. The increase in representational efficiency does not occur in either dark-reared or anesthetized mice, which show significantly attenuated coarse-to-fine spatial processing. Collectively, these results illustrate that coarse-to-fine processing is state dependent, develops postnatally via visual experience, and provides a computational advantage by generating more efficient representations of the complex spatial statistics of ethologically relevant natural scenes. Skyberg et al. show that the visual cortex of mice processes natural scenes in a coarse-to-fine manner, driven by individual neuron’s temporal dynamics. These response dynamics, which require visual experience to develop, reduce redundancy in the neural code and lead to more efficient representations of complex visual stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rolf Skyberg
- Department of Biology and Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
| | - Seiji Tanabe
- Department of Biology and Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
| | - Hui Chen
- Department of Biology and Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
| | - Jianhua Cang
- Department of Biology and Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
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8
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Nikbakht N, Diamond ME. Conserved visual capacity of rats under red light. eLife 2021; 10:66429. [PMID: 34282724 PMCID: PMC8360654 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies examine the behavioral capacities of rats and mice with and without visual input, and the neuronal mechanisms underlying such capacities. These animals are assumed to be functionally blind under red light, an assumption that might originate in the fact that they are dichromats who possess ultraviolet and green cones, but not red cones. But the inability to see red as a color does not necessarily rule out form vision based on red light absorption. We measured Long-Evans rats’ capacity for visual form discrimination under red light of various wavelength bands. Upon viewing a black and white grating, they had to distinguish between two categories of orientation: horizontal and vertical. Psychometric curves plotting judged orientation versus angle demonstrate the conserved visual capacity of rats under red light. Investigations aiming to explore rodent physiological and behavioral functions in the absence of visual input should not assume red-light blindness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nader Nikbakht
- Tactile Perception and Learning Lab, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
| | - Mathew E Diamond
- Tactile Perception and Learning Lab, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
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