State-dependent pupil dilation rapidly shifts visual feature selectivity.

ABSTRACT: To increase computational flexibility, the processing of sensory inputs changes with behavioural context. In the visual system, active behavioural states characterized by motor activity and pupil dilation^1,2 enhance sensory responses, but typically leave the preferred stimuli of neurons unchanged^2-9. Here we find that behavioural state also modulates stimulus selectivity in the mouse visual cortex in the context of coloured natural scenes. Using population imaging in behaving mice, pharmacology and deep neural network modelling, we identified a rapid shift in colour selectivity towards ultraviolet stimuli during an active behavioural state. This was exclusively caused by state-dependent pupil dilation, which resulted in a dynamic switch from rod to cone photoreceptors

SUBMITTER: Franke K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10635574 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature