| First Author | Kim J | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | Neuron | Volume | 108 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 953-967.e8 |
| PubMed ID | 33002411 | Mgi Jnum | J:300536 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6503500 | Doi | 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.012 |
| Citation | Kim J, et al. (2020) Behavioral and Neural Bases of Tactile Shape Discrimination Learning in Head-Fixed Mice. Neuron 108(5):953-967.e8 |
| abstractText | Tactile shape recognition requires the perception of object surface angles. We investigate how neural representations of object angles are constructed from sensory input and how they reorganize across learning. Head-fixed mice learned to discriminate object angles by active exploration with one whisker. Calcium imaging of layers 2-4 of the barrel cortex revealed maps of object-angle tuning before and after learning. Three-dimensional whisker tracking demonstrated that the sensory input components that best discriminate angles (vertical bending and slide distance) also have the greatest influence on object-angle tuning. Despite the high turnover in active ensemble membership across learning, the population distribution of object-angle tuning preferences remained stable. Angle tuning sharpened, but only in neurons that preferred trained angles. This was correlated with a selective increase in the influence of the most task-relevant sensory component on object-angle tuning. These results show how discrimination training enhances stimulus selectivity in the primary somatosensory cortex while maintaining perceptual stability. |
