| First Author | Gauld OM | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Neuron | PubMed ID | 38729150 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:348852 | Mgi Id | MGI:7645126 |
| Doi | 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.04.015 | Citation | Gauld OM, et al. (2024) A latent pool of neurons silenced by sensory-evoked inhibition can be recruited to enhance perception. Neuron |
| abstractText | To investigate which activity patterns in sensory cortex are relevant for perceptual decision-making, we combined two-photon calcium imaging and targeted two-photon optogenetics to interrogate barrel cortex activity during perceptual discrimination. We trained mice to discriminate bilateral whisker deflections and report decisions by licking left or right. Two-photon calcium imaging revealed sparse coding of contralateral and ipsilateral whisker input in layer 2/3, with most neurons remaining silent during the task. Activating pyramidal neurons using two-photon holographic photostimulation evoked a perceptual bias that scaled with the number of neurons photostimulated. This effect was dominated by optogenetic activation of non-coding neurons, which did not show sensory or motor-related activity during task performance. Photostimulation also revealed potent recruitment of cortical inhibition during sensory processing, which strongly and preferentially suppressed non-coding neurons. Our results suggest that a pool of non-coding neurons, selectively suppressed by network inhibition during sensory processing, can be recruited to enhance perception. |
