Multiplexing behavioral signals in sensory representations

Activity of sensory neurons is influenced not only by external stimuli but also by the animals behavioral state. It is well documented that behavior influences the general properties of neural activity, such as response gain. However, it is not known whether it could affect the sensory tuning of individual neurons in a more refined way and what the functional benefit of such nuanced modulation might be. Here, we investigate this in the mouse visual cortex using the data made available by the Allen Brain Observatory. Our analysis indicates that locomotion can modulate not only the gain of the entire neuronal response, but also more selectively control responses to specific stimuli. This modulation results in changes of neuronal tuning in different behavioral states. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that such patterns of gain modulation can multiplex behavioral information in sensory populations without compromising the accuracy of sensory coding. In that way, the visual cortex could instantiate an accurate, joint representation of sensory and movement-related signals and support computations that simultaneously require both types of information.