Fast modulation of visual perception by basal forebrain cholinergic neurons

摘要: The basal forebrain provides the primary source of cholinergic input to cortex, and it plays a crucial role in promoting wakefulness arousal. However, whether rapid changes neuron spiking awake animals can dynamically influence sensory perception is unclear. Here we show that neurons rapidly regulate cortical activity visual awake, behaving mice. Optogenetic activation or their V1 axon terminals improved performance discrimination task on trial-by-trial basis. In V1, enhanced responses desynchronized neuronal spiking, which could partly account for behavioral improvement. Conversely, optogenetic inactivation decreased performance, synchronized impaired responses, indicating importance normal processing. These results underscore causal fast, bidirectional modulation processing perception.