Tactile processing in mouse cortex depends on action context
Eric A. Finkel,
Yi-Ting Chang,
Rajan Dasgupta,
Emily E. Lubin,
Duo Xu,
Genki Minamisawa,
Anna J. Chang,
Jeremiah Y. Cohen,
Daniel H. O’Connor
Affiliations
Eric A. Finkel
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Yi-Ting Chang
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Rajan Dasgupta
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Emily E. Lubin
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Duo Xu
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Genki Minamisawa
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Anna J. Chang
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Jeremiah Y. Cohen
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Daniel H. O’Connor
Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: The brain receives constant tactile input, but only a subset guides ongoing behavior. Actions associated with tactile stimuli thus endow them with behavioral relevance. It remains unclear how the relevance of tactile stimuli affects processing in the somatosensory (S1) cortex. We developed a cross-modal selection task in which head-fixed mice switched between responding to tactile stimuli in the presence of visual distractors or to visual stimuli in the presence of tactile distractors using licking movements to the left or right side in different blocks of trials. S1 spiking encoded tactile stimuli, licking actions, and direction of licking in response to tactile but not visual stimuli. Bidirectional optogenetic manipulations showed that sensory-motor activity in S1 guided behavior when touch but not vision was relevant. Our results show that S1 activity and its impact on behavior depend on the actions associated with a tactile stimulus.
