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

ZOLD, CL; HUSSAIN SHULER MG

Chicago

Congreso; 45th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; 2015

Society for Neuroscience

The primary visual cortex (V1) is widely regarded as faithfully conveying the physical properties of visual stimuli. Thus, experienceinducedchanges in V1 are often interpreted as improving visual perception (i.e., perceptual learning). Here we describe how, withexperience, cue-evoked oscillations emerge in V1 to convey expected reward time as well as to relate experienced reward rate. We show,in chronic multisite local field potential recordings from rat V1, that repeated presentation of visual cues induces the emergence ofvisually evoked oscillatory activity. Early in training, the visually evoked oscillations relate to the physical parameters of the stimuli.However, with training, the oscillations evolve to relate the time in which those stimuli foretell expected reward. Moreover, the oscillationprevalence reflects the reward rate recently experienced by the animal. Thus, training induces experience-dependent changes in V1activity that relate to what those stimuli have come to signify behaviorally: when to expect future reward and at what rate.