Experience-dependent acquisition of visuomotor behavioral representation in primary visual cortex

INTRODUCTION: The role of primary sensory cortical areas in perception and behavior remains unclear. Moreover, the functional plasticity of these circuits during task acquisition is largely unknown. AIM(S): Here, we developed a visual learning task in awake, head-fixed mice in which animals learn to associate a small drifting grating stimulus with an aversive air puff to the cornea, driving the establishment of a conditioned blink response. METHOD(S): We previously showed that both task acquisition and performance require intact primary visual cortex (V1). Pairing this approach with 2‑photon calcium imaging of identified neuronal subpopulations in V1, we monitored cellular activity across two weeks of learning. RESULTS: Our results show that the population activity of excitatory neurons in both layer 2/3 and 5 reliably encodes the presence of a sensory stimulus throughout training, but acquires the ability to accurately represent motor output over several days. Analysis of individual neurons demonstrates that cells not encoding behavior significantly lose their visual responses during learning, producing an overall enhancement of the population-level representation. We find similar results for GABAergic interneurons expressing parvalbumin and vasoactive intestinal peptide. However, somatostatin‑expressing interneurons fail to encode behavior at any point in training, suggesting that cell type‑specific mechanisms promote plasticity in V1 circuits associated with learning. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our data suggest that visual experience produces a functional reorganization of both excitatory and inhibitory networks that facilitates efficient performance in visuomotor behavior.