Existing function in primary visual cortex is not perturbed by new skill acquisition of a non-matched sensory task.

ABSTRACT: Acquisition of new skills has the potential to disturb existing network function. To directly assess whether previously acquired cortical function is altered during learning, mice were trained in an abstract task in which selected activity patterns were rewarded using an optical brain-computer interface device coupled to primary visual cortex (V1) neurons. Excitatory neurons were longitudinally recorded using 2-photon calcium imaging. Despite significant changes in local neural activity during task performance, tuning properties and stimulus encoding assessed outside of the trained context were not perturbed. Similarly, stimulus tuning was stable in neurons that remained responsive following a different, visual discrimination training task. However, visual discrimination training increased

SUBMITTER: Jeon BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9233699 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature