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Movement and Performance Explain Widespread Cortical Activity in a Visual Detection Task.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies in mice reveal widespread cortical signals during task performance; however, the various task-related and task-independent processes underlying this activity are incompletely understood. Here, we recorded wide-field neural activity, as revealed by GCaMP6s, from dorsal cortex while simultaneously monitoring orofacial movements, walking, and arousal (pupil diameter) of head-fixed mice performing a Go/NoGo visual detection task and examined the ability of task performance and spontaneous or task-related movements to predict cortical activity. A linear model was able to explain a significant fraction (33-55% of variance) of widefield dorsal cortical activity, with the largest factors being movements (facial, walk, eye), response choice (hit, miss, false alarm), and arousal and indicate that a significant fraction of trial-to-trial variability arises from both spontaneous and task-related changes in state (e.g., movements, arousal). Importantly, secondary motor cortex was highly correlated with lick rate, critical for optimal task performance (high d'), and was the first region to significantly predict the lick response on target trials. These findings suggest that secondary motor cortex is critically involved in the decision and performance of learned movements and indicate that a significant fraction of trial-to-trial variation in cortical activity results from spontaneous and task-related movements and variations in behavioral/arousal state.

SUBMITTER: Salkoff DB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7029483 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Movement and Performance Explain Widespread Cortical Activity in a Visual Detection Task.

Salkoff David B DB Zagha Edward E McCarthy Erin E McCormick David A DA

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20200101 1

Recent studies in mice reveal widespread cortical signals during task performance; however, the various task-related and task-independent processes underlying this activity are incompletely understood. Here, we recorded wide-field neural activity, as revealed by GCaMP6s, from dorsal cortex while simultaneously monitoring orofacial movements, walking, and arousal (pupil diameter) of head-fixed mice performing a Go/NoGo visual detection task and examined the ability of task performance and spontan ...[more]

PMID: 31711133

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Project description:Parasympathetic arousal is associated with states of heightened attention and well-being. Arousal may affect widespread cortical and subcortical systems across the brain, however, little is known about its influence on cognitive task processing and performance. In the current study, healthy adult participants (n ?= ?20) underwent multi-band echo-planar imaging (TR ?= ?0.72 ?s) with simultaneous pulse oximetry recordings during performance of the Multi Source Interference Task (MSIT), the Oddball Task (OBT), and during rest. Processing speed on both tasks was robustly related to heart rate (HR). Participants with slower HR responded faster on both the MSIT (33% variance explained) and the OBT (25% variance explained). Within all participants, trial-to-trial fluctuations in processing speed were robustly related to the heartbeat-stimulus interval, a metric that is dependent both on the concurrent HR and the stimulus timing with respect to the heartbeat. Models examining the cardiac-BOLD response revealed that a distributed set of regions showed arousal-related activity that was distinct for different task conditions. Across these cortical regions, activity increased with slower HR. Arousal-related activity was distinct from task-evoked activity and it was robust to the inclusion of additional physiological nuisance regressors into the models. For the MSIT, such arousal-related activity occurred across visual and dorsal attention network regions. For the OBT, this activity occurred within fronto-parietal regions. For rest, arousal-related activity also occurred, but was confined to visual regions. The pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus showed arousal-related activity during all three task conditions. Widespread cortical activity, associated with increased parasympathetic arousal, may be propagated by thalamic circuits and contributes to improved attention. This activity is distinct from task-evoked activity, but affects cognitive performance and therefore should be incorporated into neurobiological models of cognition and clinical disorders.

Dataset Information

Movement and Performance Explain Widespread Cortical Activity in a Visual Detection Task.

Publications

Movement and Performance Explain Widespread Cortical Activity in a Visual Detection Task.

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