The primary sensory cortex has historically been studied as a low-level feature detector, but has more recently been implicated in many higher-level cognitive functions. For instance, after an animal learns that a light predicts water at a fixed delay, neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) can produce “reward timing activity” (i.e., spike modulation of various forms that relate the interval between the visual stimulus and expected reward). Local manipulations to V1 implicate it as a site of learning reward timing activity (as opposed to simply reporting timing information from another region via feedback input). However, the manner by which V1 then produces these representations is unknown. Here, we combine behavior, in vivo electrophysiology, and optogenetics to investigate the characteristics of and circuit mechanisms underlying V1 reward timing in the head-fixed mouse. We find that reward timing activity is present in mouse V1, that inhibitory interneurons participate in reward timing, and that these representations are consistent with a theorized network architecture. Together, these results deepen our understanding of V1 reward timing and the manner by which it is produced.

中文翻译：

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小鼠初级视觉皮层中抑制性中间神经元的奖励时间及其表达。

初级感觉皮层历来被研究为低级特征检测器，但最近被牵连到许多高级认知功能中。例如，在动物得知光以固定延迟预测水后，初级视觉皮层 (V1) 中的神经元可以产生“奖励计时活动”（即，与视觉刺激和视觉刺激之间的时间间隔相关的各种形式的尖峰调制）。预期回报）。对 V1 的本地操作暗示它是学习奖励计时活动的站点（而不是通过反馈输入简单地报告来自另一个区域的计时信息）。然而，V1 然后产生这些表示的方式是未知的。在这里，我们结合了行为、体内电生理学、和光遗传学研究头部固定小鼠 V1 奖励时间的特征和电路机制。我们发现小鼠 V1 中存在奖励计时活动，抑制性中间神经元参与奖励计时，并且这些表示与理论化的网络架构一致。总之，这些结果加深了我们对 V1 奖励时间及其产生方式的理解。