RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Exclusive functional subnetworks of intracortical projections neurons in primary visual cortex JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 153247 DO 10.1101/153247 A1 Mean-Hwan Kim A1 Petr Znamenskiy A1 Maria Florencia Iacaruso A1 Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/25/153247.abstract AB The rules by which neurons in neocortex choose their synaptic partners are not fully understood. In sensory cortex, intermingled neurons encode different attributes of sensory inputs and relay them to different long-range targets. While neurons with similar responses to sensory stimuli make connections preferentially, the relationship between synaptic connectivity within an area and long-range projection target remains unclear. We examined the local connectivity and visual responses of primary visual cortex neurons projecting to anterolateral (AL) and posteromedial (PM) higher visual areas in mice. Although the response properties of layer 2/3 neurons projecting to different targets were often similar, they avoided making connections with each other. Thus, projection target acts independently of response similarity to constrain local synaptic connectivity of cortical neurons. We propose that this segregated connectivity rule reduces the crosstalk between different populations of projection neurons, allowing top-down signal to modulate the activity of these output channels independently.