Theta-oscillations in visual cortex emerge with experience to convey expected reward time and experienced reward rate

ZOLD, CAMILA; SHULER, MARSHALL

Congreso; XXIX Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias; 2014

The primary visual cortex (V1) is widely regarded as faithfully conveying the physical properties of visual stimuli. Thus, experience induced changes in V1 are commonly rationalized as learning to better perceive the visual world. However, experience-dependent plasticity can also be interpreted in a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. Previous studies have demonstrated that single units within V1 can learn to predict the time of rewards associated with visual cues. In order to study what changes emerge in V1?s local field potential during a reinforcement learning task, we performed chronic recordings using linear arrays that span the entire cortical depth while rats learned visual cue-reward contingencies. Repeated exposure to the visual cue induced the emergence of stimulus evoked oscillations observable in a large V1 area and across every cortical layer. Early in training, the duration of this visually evoked oscillation showed a direct relationship with the intensity of the visual cue (p