Frontal Cortex Gates Distractor Stimulus Encoding in Sensory Cortex

Abstract

Suppressing behavioral responses to distractor stimuli is a fundamental cognitive process, essential for performing goal-directed tasks. A common framework for the neuronal implementation of distractor suppression is the attenuation of distractor stimuli from early sensory to higher-order processing. However, details of the localization and mechanisms of attenuation are poorly understood. In this study, we trained mice to selectively respond (lick) to whisker deflections from one whisker field and ignore identical deflections from the opposite whisker field. We found that suppression of frontal cortex, aligned to the target stimulus or the distractor stimulus, increases responses to distractors (false alarms). By simultaneously recording spiking activity in the mouse whisker region of primary somatosensory cortex (S1), we found that frontal cortex selectively suppresses the neuronal encoding of distractor stimuli in target-aligned S1. Frontal cortex decorrelates the encoding of target and distractor stimuli in single units, thereby increasing stimulus selectivity across the population of target-aligned S1 neurons. Even before stimulus onset, effects of frontal cortex on S1 were robust and context-dependent, indicating proactive modulation. Overall, our study provides important mechanistic details about the roles of frontal cortex in gating sensory responses in sensory cortex.

A Translaminar Spacetime Code Supports Touch-Evoked Traveling Waves

“…In this scenario, Go and No-Go trials should evoke waves of activity, including actively engaging higher-order feedback in the C1 and D1 barrels, allowing us to test for goal-directed changes to traveling waves ( Figure 3A ). This is further strengthened by the growing evidence that higher-order wMC feedback plays a role in shaping behavior 47 and is fundamental during active-touch 48…”

“…Pure excitatory motor cortex feedback to wS1 90 , has been reported to enhance spiking responses to touch via supralinear amplification 91 , encode movement and touch responses 88,89 , drive spiking across cortical layers 47 , and generate calcium transients in L5 apical dendrites 26 . Inhibitory motor feedback effects on the contrary has been reported to suppress responses to distractor stimuli in barrel cortex 48 .…”

“…In this scenario, Go and No-Go trials should evoke waves of activity, including actively engaging higher-order feedback in the C1 and D1 barrels, allowing us to test for goal-directed changes to traveling waves (Figure 3A). This is further strengthened by the growing evidence that higher-order wMC feedback plays a role in shaping behavior 47 and is fundamental during active-touch 48 After training animals to expertly discriminate (Figure S3B), we performed NeuroGrid surface recordings and high-speed whisker imaging as animals undertook the behavioral task. We then used whisker tracking with DeepLabCut 49 to detect the precise C1 and D1 touch times during Go and No-Go trials (Figure 3D, see Methods).…”

Goal-Directed Learning is Multidimensional and Accompanied by Diverse and Widespread Changes in Neocortical Signaling

“…Experimental protocols have been approved by the IACUC of University of California, Riverside. The dataset used here include behavioral studies that have been previously reported (Aruljothi et al, 2020; Marrero et al, 2022; Zareian et al, 2022; Zareian et al, 2021; Zhang & Zagha, 2022). A wide variety of wild type and transgenic mice were considered for behavioral learning data.…”

“…Mice were maintained in a 12-h light/dark cycle and animal behavior occurred during the light cycle. Mice were head-fixed before behavioral training began, as previously reported (Aruljothi et al, 2020; Zareian et al, 2021; Zhang & Zagha, 2022). Mice started behavioral training after a minimum of a 4-day recovery period from surgery.…”