Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

eLife Sciences Publications, eLife, (6), 2017

DOI: 10.7554/elife.21589

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Stimulus relevance modulates contrast adaptation in visual cortex

Journal article published in 2017 by Andreas J. Keller ORCID, Rachael Houlton, Bj Kampa ORCID, Nicholas A. Lesica ORCID, Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel ORCID, Georg B. Keller ORCID, Fritjof Helmchen ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Upload
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

A general principle of sensory processing is that neurons adapt to sustained stimuli by reducing their response over time. Most of our knowledge on adaptation in single cells is based on experiments in anesthetized animals. How responses adapt in awake animals, when stimuli may be behaviorally relevant or not, remains unclear. Here we show that contrast adaptation in mouse primary visual cortex depends on the behavioral relevance of the stimulus. Cells that adapted to contrast under anesthesia maintained or even increased their activity in awake naïve mice. When engaged in a visually guided task, contrast adaptation re-occurred for stimuli that were irrelevant for solving the task. However, contrast adaptation was reversed when stimuli acquired behavioral relevance. Regulation of cortical adaptation by task demand may allow dynamic control of sensory-evoked signal flow in the neocortex.