In vivo two-photon Ca2+ imaging reveals selective reward effects on stimulus-specific assemblies in mouse visual cortex

J Neurosci. 2013 Jul 10;33(28):11540-55. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1341-12.2013.

Abstract

Experiences can alter functional properties of neurons in primary sensory neocortex but it is poorly understood how stimulus-reward associations contribute to these changes. Using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging in mouse primary visual cortex (V1), we show that association of a directional visual stimulus with reward results in broadened orientation tuning and sharpened direction tuning in a stimulus-selective subpopulation of V1 neurons. Neurons with preferred orientations similar, but not identical to, the CS+ selectively increased their tuning curve bandwidth and thereby exhibited an increased response amplitude at the CS+ orientation. The increase in response amplitude was observed for a small range of orientations around the CS+ orientation. A nonuniform spatial distribution of reward effects across the cortical surface was observed, as the spatial distance between pairs of CS+ tuned neurons was reduced compared with pairs of CS- tuned neurons and pairs of control directions or orientations. These data show that, in primary visual cortex, formation of a stimulus-reward association results in selective alterations in stimulus-specific assemblies rather than population-wide effects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Calcium / metabolism*
  • Conditioning, Operant / physiology*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Microscopy, Confocal / methods
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / methods
  • Photic Stimulation / methods*
  • Random Allocation
  • Reward*
  • Visual Cortex / chemistry
  • Visual Cortex / metabolism*
  • Visual Fields / physiology

Substances

  • Calcium