Context flexibly modulates cue representations in visual cortex

Alexa D. Faulkner, Alvin S. Chiu, Armin Sarabi, Swathi Karthik, Yaoxin S. Li and Christian R. Burgess ()
Additional contact information
Alexa D. Faulkner: University of Michigan
Alvin S. Chiu: University of Michigan
Armin Sarabi: University of Michigan
Swathi Karthik: University of Michigan
Yaoxin S. Li: University of Michigan
Christian R. Burgess: University of Michigan

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Learned sensory cues result in enhanced responses in sensory cortices and, in turn, enhanced responses draw attention towards cues in our environment that guide future decision making. To respond appropriately, one must recognize the cue but also the context. Here we use two-photon imaging in visual cortex as mice learn a visual discrimination task and subsequently experience a change in external context through introduction of a threat stimulus. Stimuli associated with a reward elicit an enhanced response due to newly recruited neurons responding preferentially to the rewarded cue in addition to neurons increasing their response magnitude. Introduction of threat results in a largely separate set of neurons encoding cues, but the maintenance of the enhanced response to a rewarded cue. When the threat is relieved, representations revert to their initial state. These data suggest that external context changes can result in rapid but flexible shifts in the representation of visual cues.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61314-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61314-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61314-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().