Task Engagement Gates Interareal Communication Geometry in the Mouse Thalamocortical–Midbrain Visual Circuit
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Abstract
Abstract Visual processing unfolds across hierarchically organized brain circuits. Existing theories largely explain changes in population geometry through local shifts in gain, firing-rate statistics, or recurrent dynamics, yet do not account for how interareal coordination interacts with local population geometry to constrain downstream population states. We used task engagement, compared to a passive condition, to probe this coordination in Neuropixels recordings spanning the mouse visual thalamocortical–midbrain circuit. Engagement reduced network activity, response participation, and dimensionality across the hierarchy. To account for this circuit-level organization, we developed a theoretical framework in which afferent population geometry interacts with local recurrent dynamics to constrain the accessible dynamics of downstream populations. Across the thalamocortical stages, population-wide afferent statistics predicted downstream activity and dimensionality. At the cortex– midbrain interface, engagement instead reorganized interareal communication geometry. Together, these results identify interareal input geometry as a key constraint on neural population dynamics and uncover a general principle by which behavioral engagement constrains neural state spaces across distributed visual circuits.
Authors 6
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Loris Amalberti corresponding
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3109601, Israel
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Affiliation as printed
Institute for Theory of Statistical Physics, RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Allen Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Allen Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany
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Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3109601, Israel
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