Activation of specific interneurons improves V1 feature selectivity and visual perception
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Boyden_Activation specific.pdf
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Author(s)
Lee, Seung-Hee
Kwan, Alex C.
Zhang, Siyu
Phoumthipphavong, Victoria
Flannery, John G.
Masmanidis, Sotiris C.
Taniguchi, Hiroki
Huang, Z. Josh
Zhang, Feng
Deisseroth, Karl
Date Issued
August 2012
Journal
Nature
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Lee, Seung-Hee, Alex C. Kwan, Siyu Zhang, et al. 2012 Activation of Specific Interneurons Improves V1 Feature Selectivity and Visual Perception. Nature 488(7411): 379–383.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Inhibitory interneurons are essential components of the neural circuits underlying various brain functions. In the neocortex, a large diversity of GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) interneurons has been identified on the basis of their morphology, molecular markers, biophysical properties and innervation pattern1, 2, 3. However, how the activity of each subtype of interneurons contributes to sensory processing remains unclear. Here we show that optogenetic activation of parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons in the mouse primary visual cortex (V1) sharpens neuronal feature selectivity and improves perceptual discrimination. Using multichannel recording with silicon probes4, 5 and channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)-mediated optical activation6, we found that increased spiking of PV+ interneurons markedly sharpened orientation tuning and enhanced direction selectivity of nearby neurons. These effects were caused by the activation of inhibitory neurons rather than a decreased spiking of excitatory neurons, as archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch)-mediated optical silencing7 of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIα (CAMKIIα)-positive excitatory neurons caused no significant change in V1 stimulus selectivity. Moreover, the improved selectivity specifically required PV+ neuron activation, as activating somatostatin or vasointestinal peptide interneurons had no significant effect. Notably, PV+ neuron activation in awake mice caused a significant improvement in their orientation discrimination, mirroring the sharpened V1 orientation tuning. Together, these results provide the first demonstration that visual coding and perception can be improved by increased spiking of a specific subtype of cortical inhibitory interneurons.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11312
