Stimulus relevance modulates contrast adaptation in visual cortex.

Andreas J Keller,Thomas D Mrsic-Flogel,Rachael Houlton,Fritjof Helmchen,Georg B Keller,Björn M Kampa,Nicholas A Lesica

doi:10.7554/elife.21589

Abstract

A general principle of sensory processing is that neurons adapt to sustained stimuli by reducing their response over time. Most of our knowledge on adaptation in single cells is based on experiments in anesthetized animals. How responses adapt in awake animals, when stimuli may be behaviorally relevant or not, remains unclear. Here we show that contrast adaptation in mouse primary visual cortex depends on the behavioral relevance of the stimulus. Cells that adapted to contrast under anesthesia maintained or even increased their activity in awake naïve mice. When engaged in a visually guided task, contrast adaptation re-occurred for stimuli that were irrelevant for solving the task. However, contrast adaptation was reversed when stimuli acquired behavioral relevance. Regulation of cortical adaptation by task demand may allow dynamic control of sensory-evoked signal flow in the neocortex.

Highlights

Our sensory systems constantly receive streams of sensory signals
We show that contrast adaptation in mouse primary visual cortex depends on the behavioral relevance of the stimulus
While sensory-evoked responses are known to be modulated by task engagement or attention (Ito and Gilbert, 1999; Harris and Mrsic-Flogel, 2013; Reynolds and Chelazzi, 2004), it is still unclear if cortical adaptation is modulated by the behavioral relevance of the stimulus

Summary

Introduction

Our sensory systems constantly receive streams of sensory signals. The computational resources to process this input, are limited. Neural circuits in sensory systems have been shown to reduce responses to sustained stimuli (Adrian and Zotterman, 1926; Albrecht et al, 1984; Maffei et al, 1973) or selectively enhance aspects of the sensory input that are relevant to a behavioral task (Desimone and Duncan, 1995; Ito and Gilbert, 1999; Kato et al, 2015; Reynolds and Heeger, 2009; Zhang et al, 2014). While sensory-evoked responses are known to be modulated by task engagement or attention (Ito and Gilbert, 1999; Harris and Mrsic-Flogel, 2013; Reynolds and Chelazzi, 2004), it is still unclear if cortical adaptation is modulated by the behavioral relevance of the stimulus

Results and discussion

Materials and methods

Surgical procedures and anesthesia

Funding Funder Seventh Framework Programme