Subunit-specific behavioral modulation of sensory tuning in the visual cortex

Abstract

Activity of sensory neurons is influenced not only by external stimuli but also by the animal's behavioral state. It is well documented that behavior influences the general properties of neural activity, such as response gain. However, it is not known whether it could affect the sensory tuning of individual neurons in a more refined way and what the functional benefit of such nuanced modulation might be. Here, we investigate this in the mouse visual cortex using the data made available by the Allen Brain Observatory. Our analysis indicates that locomotion can modulate not only the gain of the entire neuronal response, but also more selectively control responses to specific stimuli. This modulation results in changes of neuronal tuning in different behavioral states. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that such patterns of gain modulation can multiplex behavioral information in sensory populations without compromising the accuracy of sensory coding. In that way, the visual cortex could instantiate an accurate, joint representation of sensory and movement-related signals and support computations that simultaneously require both types of information. While it is known that behavioral state, such as whether an animal is moving or still, can broadly change the strength of neural responses, it has been unclear whether it can also fine-tune how individual sensory neurons respond to specific stimuli. Using data from the mouse visual cortex, we demonstrate that locomotion can selectively alter neuronal responses to particular visual features, effectively changing sensory tuning across behavioral states. Our simulations suggest that this selective modulation allows the brain to represent both visual and movement-related information simultaneously without reducing sensory accuracy. Together, our results indicate that the visual cortex may support an efficient, joint encoding of sensory and movement-related information.