Top-down mediated facilitation in the visual cortex is gated by subcortical neuromodulation

NICHOLAS, M; ZHANG, R; PAFUNDO, DE; KUHLMAN, SJ

JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE

SOC NEUROSCIENCE

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2016 vol. 30 p. 2904 - 2914

0270-6474

Response properties in primary sensory cortices are highly dependent on behavioral state. For example, the nucleus basalis of theforebrain plays a critical role in enhancing response properties of excitatory neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) during active explorationand learning. Given the strong reciprocal connections between hierarchically arranged cortical regions, how are increases insensory response gain constrained to prevent runaway excitation? To explore this, we used in vivo two-photon guided cell-attachedrecording in conjunction with spatially restricted optogenetic photo-inhibition of higher-order visual cortex in mice. We found that theprinciple feedback projection to V1 originating from the lateral medial area (LM) facilitated visual responses in layer 2/3 excitatoryneurons by20%. This facilitation was reduced by half during basal forebrain activation due to differential response properties betweenLMand V1. Our results demonstrate that basal-forebrain-mediated increases in response gain are localized to V1 and are not propagatedto LM and establish that subcortical modulation of visual cortex is regionally distinct.