Dataset Information

Small Networks Encode Decision-Making in Primary Auditory Cortex.

ABSTRACT: Sensory detection tasks enhance representations of behaviorally meaningful stimuli in primary auditory cortex (A1). However, it remains unclear how A1 encodes decision-making. Neurons in A1 layer 2/3 (L2/3) show heterogeneous stimulus selectivity and complex anatomical connectivity, and receive input from prefrontal cortex. Thus, task-related modulation of activity in A1 L2/3 might differ across subpopulations. To study the neural coding of decision-making, we used two-photon imaging in A1 L2/3 of mice performing a tone-detection task. Neural responses to targets showed attentional gain and encoded behavioral choice. To characterize network representation of behavioral choice, we analyzed functional connectivity using Granger causality, pairwise noise correlations, and neural decoding. During task performance, small groups of four to five neurons became sparsely linked, locally clustered, and rostro-caudally oriented, while noise correlations both increased and decreased. Our results suggest that sensory-based decision-making involves small neural networks driven by the sum of sensory input, attentional gain, and behavioral choice.

SUBMITTER: Francis NA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6289180 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Small Networks Encode Decision-Making in Primary Auditory Cortex.

Francis Nikolas A NA Winkowski Daniel E DE Sheikhattar Alireza A Armengol Kevin K Babadi Behtash B Kanold Patrick O PO

Neuron 20180201 4

Sensory detection tasks enhance representations of behaviorally meaningful stimuli in primary auditory cortex (A1). However, it remains unclear how A1 encodes decision-making. Neurons in A1 layer 2/3 (L2/3) show heterogeneous stimulus selectivity and complex anatomical connectivity, and receive input from prefrontal cortex. Thus, task-related modulation of activity in A1 L2/3 might differ across subpopulations. To study the neural coding of decision-making, we used two-photon imaging in A1 L2/3 ...[more]

PMID: 29398362

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Project description:The ability to process and act upon incoming sounds during locomotion is critical for survival and adaptive behavior. Despite the established role that the auditory cortex (AC) plays in behavior- and context-dependent sound processing, previous studies have found that auditory cortical activity is on average suppressed during locomotion as compared to immobility. While suppression of auditory cortical responses to self-generated sounds results from corollary discharge, which weakens responses to predictable sounds, the functional role of weaker responses to unpredictable external sounds during locomotion remains unclear. In particular, whether suppression of external sound-evoked responses during locomotion reflects reduced involvement of the AC in sound processing or whether it results from masking by an alternative neural computation in this state remains unresolved. Here, we tested the hypothesis that rather than simple inhibition, reduced sound-evoked responses during locomotion reflect a tradeoff with the emergence of explicit and reliable coding of locomotion velocity. To test this hypothesis, we first used neural inactivation in behaving mice and found that the AC plays a critical role in sound-guided behavior during locomotion. To investigate the nature of this processing, we used two-photon calcium imaging of local excitatory auditory cortical neural populations in awake mice. We found that locomotion had diverse influences on activity of different neurons, with a net suppression of baseline-subtracted sound-evoked responses and neural stimulus detection, consistent with previous studies. Importantly, we found that the net inhibitory effect of locomotion on baseline-subtracted sound-evoked responses was strongly shaped by elevated ongoing activity that compressed the response dynamic range, and that rather than reflecting enhanced "noise," this ongoing activity reliably encoded the animal's locomotion speed. Decoding analyses revealed that locomotion speed and sound are robustly co-encoded by auditory cortical ensemble activity. Finally, we found consistent patterns of joint coding of sound and locomotion speed in electrophysiologically recorded activity in freely moving rats. Together, our data suggest that rather than being suppressed by locomotion, auditory cortical ensembles explicitly encode it alongside sound information to support sound perception during locomotion.

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Small Networks Encode Decision-Making in Primary Auditory Cortex.

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Small Networks Encode Decision-Making in Primary Auditory Cortex.

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