Dynamic perceptual feature selectivity in primary somatosensory cortex upon reversal learning

Chéreau, Ronan; Bawa, Tanika; Fodoulian, Leon; Carleton, Alan; Pagès, Stéphane; Holtmaat, Anthony

doi:10.1101/782847

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…6). This is consistent with detection, discrimination, and delayed match to sample tasks showing that barrel cortex neurons encode both stimulusand choice-related information (13,31,(40)(41)(42)(43). Our results extend this finding to tasks involving the discrimination of oriented tactile gratings and suggest that the temporal structure of cortical dynamics can also contain choice-related information.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Fast cortical dynamics encode tactile grating orientation during active touch

2021

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Touch-based object recognition relies on perception of compositional tactile features like roughness, shape, and surface orientation. However, besides roughness, it remains unclear how these different tactile features are encoded by neural activity that is linked with perception. Here, we establish a cortex-dependent perceptual task in which mice discriminate tactile gratings on the basis of orientation using only their whiskers. Multielectrode recordings in the barrel cortex reveal weak orientation tuning in average firing rates (500-ms time scale) during grating exploration despite high levels of cortical activity. Just before decision, orientation information extracted from fast cortical dynamics (100-ms time scale) more closely resembles concurrent psychophysical measurements than single neuron orientation tuning curves. This temporal code conveys both stimulus and choice/actionrelated information, suggesting that fast cortical dynamics during exploration of a tactile object both reflect the physical stimulus and affect the decision.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Fast cortical dynamics encode tactile grating orientation during active touch

2021

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“…34,35, In our data, non-sensory parameters do not just modulate the responses of sensory cortex neurons; rather, in a subset of neurons, responses reflect action decisions or reward outcomes more strongly than sensory cues or features, consistent with other recent studies. 79,86,87 Sensitivity to multiple sensory and behavioral variables is well established in higher cortical areas such as PFC [88][89][90][91][92] and parietal cortex. 42,93 The findings above suggest that, upon learning, a similarly rich representation becomes shared by early sensory areas.…”

Section: Non-sensory Representations In Sensory Cortexmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…47,[96][97][98]100,102 In rodents, the somatosensory cortex links directly to PFC, premotor cortex, and the basal ganglia (dorsal striatum), areas which have been linked to accumulation of sensory evidence, to categorization, and to reaching the decision itself; 26,31,52,100,[102][103][104][105] learning an association between sensory information and specific actions is likely to reinforce feedback loops between sensory and higher regions. 33,34,74,86,98,106 The links between a stimulus and the appropriate action could be learned initially in one of the higher areas. Depending on behavioral context and task familiarity, top-down connections to S1bf and S2 could then help link the lower-level representation of the target stimulus to its consequent action.…”

Section: Non-sensory Representations In Sensory Cortexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequence Learning Induces Selectivity to Multiple Task Parameters in Mouse Somatosensory Cortex

et al. 2021

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Sequential temporal ordering and patterning are key features of natural signals, used by the brain to decode stimuli and perceive them as sensory objects. To explore how cortical neuronal activity underpins sequence discrimination, we developed a task in which mice distinguished between tactile ''word'' sequences constructed from distinct vibrations delivered to the whiskers, assembled in different orders. Animals licked to report the presence of the target sequence. Mice could respond to the earliest possible cues allowing discrimination, effectively solving the task as a ''detection of change'' problem, but enhanced their performance when responding later. Optogenetic inactivation showed that the somatosensory cortex was necessary for sequence discrimination. Two-photon imaging in layer 2/3 of the primary somatosensory ''barrel'' cortex (S1bf) revealed that, in well-trained animals, neurons had heterogeneous selectivity to multiple task variables including not just sensory input but also the animal's action decision and the trial outcome (presence or absence of the predicted reward). Many neurons were activated preceding goal-directed licking, thus reflecting the animal's learned action in response to the target sequence; these neurons were found as soon as mice learned to associate the rewarded sequence with licking. In contrast, learning evoked smaller changes in sensory response tuning: neurons responding to stimulus features were found in naive mice, and training did not generate neurons with enhanced temporal integration or categorical responses. Therefore, in S1bf, sequence learning results in neurons whose activity reflects the learned association between target sequence and licking rather than a refined representation of sensory features.

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“…Two-photon microscopy allowed us to reliably track the same cells over different days (Figure S3B). We compared tuning properties of individual cells across sessions (Chéreau et al, 2020) by calculating a selectivity index for each cell using ROC analysis in the different sessions (Figure S4A). For each cell, we compared pairs of sessions by plotting its selectivity index measured on a given day versus its selectivity index on a preceding or subsequent session.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coding of social odors in the hippocampal CA2 region as a substrate for social memory

Hassan

Bigler

Siegelbaum

2021

Preprint

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The ability to encode and update information about individuals is critical for lasting social relationships. Although the hippocampus is important for social recognition memory, its underlying neural representations remain elusive. Here we investigate the neural codes mediating social recognition and learning by examining social odor recognition and associative odor-reward learning in mice. We performed high-resolution calcium imaging from the hippocampal CA2 region of awake head-fixed mice, as CA2 is necessary for social recognition memory. We find that CA2 encodes specific neural representations of novel social odors that are further refined during associative odor-reward learning. Optogenetic silencing of CA2 impairs the formation of reward associations. Furthermore, CA2 population activity represents odors in a geometry that enables abstract representations of social versus non-social odors. Thus, CA2 distinguishes multiple forms of olfactory stimuli to enhance the learning of social odors and associations, which are poised to serve as substrates of social memory.

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Dynamic perceptual feature selectivity in primary somatosensory cortex upon reversal learning

Cited by 5 publications

References 49 publications

Fast cortical dynamics encode tactile grating orientation during active touch

Fast cortical dynamics encode tactile grating orientation during active touch

Sequence Learning Induces Selectivity to Multiple Task Parameters in Mouse Somatosensory Cortex

Coding of social odors in the hippocampal CA2 region as a substrate for social memory

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