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Distinct contributions of mouse cortical areas to visual discrimination

View ORCID ProfilePeter Zatka-Haas, View ORCID ProfileNicholas A. Steinmetz, View ORCID ProfileMatteo Carandini, View ORCID ProfileKenneth D. Harris
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/501627
Peter Zatka-Haas
Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UKCentre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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  • ORCID record for Peter Zatka-Haas
Nicholas A. Steinmetz
Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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Matteo Carandini
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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Kenneth D. Harris
Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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  • For correspondence: kenneth.harris@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Sensory decisions involve multiple cortical areas, but the specific roles of these areas are not well understood. We trained head-fixed mice to discriminate visual contrast and report their decision with a wheel turn. Widefield calcium imaging revealed task-related activity in multiple cortical areas: visual (VIS), secondary motor (MOs), primary motor and somatosensory. Optogenetic inactivation, however, impaired performance only in VIS and MOs. The animal’s choices could be related to cortical activity using a simple neurometric model that weighed activity in VIS and MOs. The model’s weights revealed different roles for these regions: VIS promotes contraversive and suppresses ipsiversive choices, whereas MOs promotes both contraversive and ipsiversive choices. With no further parameter adjustments, the same model predicted the effect of local optogenetic inactivation. These results indicate that neocortex causally supports visual discrimination through visual and frontal but not primary motor areas, and provides a quantitative framework relating cortical activity to decisions.

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  • ↵5 Co-senior authors

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted December 21, 2018.
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Distinct contributions of mouse cortical areas to visual discrimination
Peter Zatka-Haas, Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Matteo Carandini, Kenneth D. Harris
bioRxiv 501627; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/501627
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Distinct contributions of mouse cortical areas to visual discrimination
Peter Zatka-Haas, Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Matteo Carandini, Kenneth D. Harris
bioRxiv 501627; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/501627

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