Abstract
SummaryThe integration of visual stimuli and motor feedback is critical for successful visually guided navigation. These signals have been shown to shape neuronal activity in the primary visual cortex (V1), in an experience-dependent manner. Here, we examined whether visual, reward, and self-motion-related inputs are integrated in order to encode behaviorally relevant locations in V1 neurons. Using a behavioral task in a virtual environment, we monitored layer 2/3 neuronal activity as mice learned to locate a reward along a linear corridor. With learning, a subset of neurons became responsive to the expected reward location. Without a visual cue to the reward location, both behavioral and neuronal responses relied on self-motion-derived estimations. However, when visual cues were available, both neuronal and behavioral responses were driven by visual information. Therefore, a population of V1 neurons encode behaviorally relevant spatial locations, based on either visual cues or on self-motion feedback when visual cues are absent.
Highlights
The ability to identify behaviorally relevant locations is critical for successful navigation through the environment and, survival
It remains unknown whether V1 neurons represent spatial locations that are relevant for a behavioral task, such as the location associated with a reward, and whether spatial expectations would exclusively rely on visual cues or may be triggered by self-motion signals alone
We found that V1 neuronal activity correlated with behavioral responses: with training, most neurons became responsive to the reward zone region of the virtual corridor
Summary
The ability to identify behaviorally relevant locations is critical for successful navigation through the environment and, survival. Previous studies have used visual discrimination tasks, in which mice learn to discriminate a rewarded visual stimulus from a non-rewarded one, to show that the representation of behaviorally relevant visual stimuli in V1 are enhanced with experience (Jurjut et al, 2017; Keller et al, 2017; Pakan et al, 2018; Poort et al, 2015) These results suggest that feedforward visual inputs are integrated with reward-related signals that have been shown to be present in V1 (Chubykin et al, 2013; Shuler and Bear, 2006). It is unclear whether visual, reward, and self-motion-related signals combine to activate V1 neurons in response to relevant spatial locations, such as a location associated with a reward
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