title: Top-Down-Mediated Facilitation in the Visual Cortex Is Gated by Subcortical Neuromodulation.
abstract: Response properties in primary sensory cortices are highly dependent on behavioral state. For example, the nucleus basalis of the forebrain plays a critical role in enhancing response properties of excitatory neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) during active exploration and learning. Given the strong reciprocal connections between hierarchically arranged cortical regions, how are increases in sensory response gain constrained to prevent runaway excitation? To explore this, we used in vivo two-photon guided cell-attached recording in conjunction with spatially restricted optogenetic photo-inhibition of higher-order visual cortex in mice. We found that the principle feedback projection to V1 originating from the lateral medial area (LM) facilitated visual responses in layer 2/3 excitatory neurons by ∼20%. This facilitation was reduced by half during basal forebrain activation due to differential response properties between LM and V1. Our results demonstrate that basal-forebrain-mediated increases in response gain are localized to V1 and are not propagated to LM and establish that subcortical modulation of visual cortex is regionally distinct.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Diego E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Pafundo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nicholas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Ruilin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 skuhlman@cmu.edu.
authors.forename: Sandra J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0450-7282
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kuhlman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001931:Brain Mapping; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055139:Sensory Gating / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D010320:Parvalbumins; C054562:yellow fluorescent protein, Bacteria
keywords: GABAergic; basal forebrain; nucleus basalis; optogenetic; parvalbumin; primary visual cortex