Journal
NATURE
Volume 610, Issue 7930, Pages 128-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05270-3
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Funding
- International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS)
- Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
- DFG Cluster of Excellence 'Machine Learning-New Perspectives for Science' [EXC 2064/1, 390727645]
- AWS Machine Learning research award
- Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) through the Department of Interior/Interior Business Center (DoI/IBC) [D16PC00003, R01 EY026927, U01 UF1NS126566]
- NEI/NIH Core Grant for Vision Research [P30EY002520]
- NSF NeuroNex [1707400]
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Behavioural state modulates stimulus selectivity in the mouse visual cortex, enhancing sensitivity to coloured stimuli. This modulation is caused by pupil dilation, which results in a switch from rod to cone photoreceptors.
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, thereby extending their role beyond night and day vision. The change in tuning facilitated the decoding of ethological stimuli, such as aerial predators against the twilight sky(10). For decades, studies in neuroscience and cognitive science have used pupil dilation as an indirect measure of brain state. Our data suggest that, in addition, state-dependent pupil dilation itself tunes visual representations to behavioural demands by differentially recruiting rods and cones on fast timescales.
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