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Cortico-cortical projections in mouse visual cortex are functionally target specific

2013; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 16; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nn.3300

1546-1726

Lindsey L. Glickfeld, Mark L. Andermann, Vincent Bonin, R. Clay Reid,

Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Tuning of neurons in higher visual cortices is less diverse than in primary visual cortex (V1), but the mechanisms underlying this specialization are unknown. In this paper, Glickfeld and colleagues used two-photon imaging in awake mice to measure the visual responses of boutons from V1 projection neurons in the higher visual areas and found that bouton tunings matched the preference of their target areas. These findings suggest that inter-areal visual stimulus feature segregation occurs via the target-specific routing of visual information as it ascends the cortical hierarchy. Neurons in primary sensory cortex have diverse response properties, whereas higher cortical areas are specialized. Specific connectivity may be important for areal specialization, particularly in the mouse, where neighboring neurons are functionally diverse. To examine whether higher visual areas receive functionally specific input from primary visual cortex (V1), we used two-photon calcium imaging to measure responses of axons from V1 arborizing in three areas with distinct spatial and temporal frequency preferences. We found that visual preferences of presynaptic boutons in each area were distinct and matched the average preferences of recipient neurons. This specificity could not be explained by organization within V1 and instead was due to both a greater density and greater response amplitude of functionally matched boutons. Projections from a single layer (layer 5) and from secondary visual cortex were also matched to their target areas. Thus, transmission of specific information to downstream targets may be a general feature of cortico-cortical communication.