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Learning and attention increase visual response selectivity through distinct mechanisms.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Wilmes, Katharina A 
Blot, Antonin 
Chadwick, Angus 
Sahani, Maneesh 

Abstract

Selectivity of cortical neurons for sensory stimuli can increase across days as animals learn their behavioral relevance and across seconds when animals switch attention. While both phenomena occur in the same circuit, it is unknown whether they rely on similar mechanisms. We imaged primary visual cortex as mice learned a visual discrimination task and subsequently performed an attention switching task. Selectivity changes due to learning and attention were uncorrelated in individual neurons. Selectivity increases after learning mainly arose from selective suppression of responses to one of the stimuli but from selective enhancement and suppression during attention. Learning and attention differentially affected interactions between excitatory and PV, SOM, and VIP inhibitory cells. Circuit modeling revealed that cell class-specific top-down inputs best explained attentional modulation, while reorganization of local functional connectivity accounted for learning-related changes. Thus, distinct mechanisms underlie increased discriminability of relevant sensory stimuli across longer and shorter timescales.

Description

Keywords

GABAergic interneurons, attention, learning, neural circuits, plasticity, visual cortex, Animals, Attention, Discrimination, Psychological, Learning, Mice, Neurons, Visual Perception

Journal Title

Neuron

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0896-6273
1097-4199

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (211258/Z/18/Z)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/N019008/1)