Increased activity without changes in coupling between somata and apical dendrites during visual mismatches
- 1Mila, Montréal, Québec, Canada; McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Abstract
Leading theories of cortical function posit that sensory processing involves a comparison between top-down predictions and bottom-up sensory data. Tests of these theories have been hampered by experimental challenges related to simultaneously recording top-down and bottom-up signals in response to sensory stimuli that either do or do not match internally-generated predictions. Here, we conduct dual-plane 2-photon calcium imaging near-simultaneously from distal apical dendrites and somata of pyramidal neurons in each of 4 different regions of mouse visual cortex while the mice are presented with visual sequences that can either match or mismatch previously habituated visual stimuli. Specifically, we examine the responses in the distal apical dendrites and cell bodies of pyramidal neurons while mice view either movie clips that reverse unexpectedly or Gabor patch sequences that have orientations that do not match habituated patterns. We find that in response to unexpected reversals in natural movies, both the apical dendrites and somata show increased activity that decreases over repeated exposures, consistent with a prediction error response. However, we do not find any clear evidence for increased activity in response to mismatches in Gabor sequences, beyond possible release from adaptation effects. We additionally use volumetric images to connect dendritic and somatic compartments and examine the coupling between connected dendrites and cell bodies in layer 5 pyramidal neurons. We do not find evidence for changes in coupling in response to mismatch stimuli, either for natural movies or Gabor sequences. Our results are consistent across four regions of visual cortex. We also observe that increased responses to reversals in natural movies are stronger in layer 2/3 than layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Altogether, these data suggest that visual cortex is sensitive to deviations from previously-experienced naturalistic inputs. Our data do not suggest that this mismatch sensitivity extends to artificial stimuli, nor do they support theories of prediction error causing changes in the coupling between apical dendrites and somata.
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BibTeX
@misc{henley2026increased,
title = {{Increased activity without changes in coupling between somata and apical dendrites during visual mismatches}},
author = {T. M. Henley and J. Tindall and J. E. Pina and R. Pogodin and S. Caldejon and N. Orlova and A. Amaya and A. Bawany and C. Grasso and P. Groblewski and V. Ha and W. Han and T. Johnson and R. Naidoo and K. Nguyen and S. Seid and L. Suarez and J. Swapp and X. Waughman and J. Wilkes and A. Williford and A. Young and J. A. Lecoq and J. Zylberberg and B. A. Richards},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.64898/2026.11.04.764139},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.04.764139v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Increased activity without changes in coupling between somata and apical dendrites during visual mismatches
AU - T. M. Henley
AU - J. Tindall
AU - J. E. Pina
AU - R. Pogodin
AU - S. Caldejon
AU - N. Orlova
AU - A. Amaya
AU - A. Bawany
AU - C. Grasso
AU - P. Groblewski
AU - V. Ha
AU - W. Han
AU - T. Johnson
AU - R. Naidoo
AU - K. Nguyen
AU - S. Seid
AU - L. Suarez
AU - J. Swapp
AU - X. Waughman
AU - J. Wilkes
AU - A. Williford
AU - A. Young
AU - J. A. Lecoq
AU - J. Zylberberg
AU - B. A. Richards
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.11.04.764139
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.04.764139v1
AB - Leading theories of cortical function posit that sensory processing involves a comparison between top-down predictions and bottom-up sensory data. Tests of these theories have been hampered by experimental challenges related to simultaneously recording top-down and bottom-up signals in response to sensory stimuli that either do or do not match internally-generated predictions. Here, we conduct dual-plane 2-photon calcium imaging near-simultaneously from distal apical dendrites and somata of pyramidal neurons in each of 4 different regions of mouse visual cortex while the mice are presented with visual sequences that can either match or mismatch previously habituated visual stimuli. Specifically, we examine the responses in the distal apical dendrites and cell bodies of pyramidal neurons while mice view either movie clips that reverse unexpectedly or Gabor patch sequences that have orientations that do not match habituated patterns. We find that in response to unexpected reversals in natural movies, both the apical dendrites and somata show increased activity that decreases over repeated exposures, consistent with a prediction error response. However, we do not find any clear evidence for increased activity in response to mismatches in Gabor sequences, beyond possible release from adaptation effects. We additionally use volumetric images to connect dendritic and somatic compartments and examine the coupling between connected dendrites and cell bodies in layer 5 pyramidal neurons. We do not find evidence for changes in coupling in response to mismatch stimuli, either for natural movies or Gabor sequences. Our results are consistent across four regions of visual cortex. We also observe that increased responses to reversals in natural movies are stronger in layer 2/3 than layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Altogether, these data suggest that visual cortex is sensitive to deviations from previously-experienced naturalistic inputs. Our data do not suggest that this mismatch sensitivity extends to artificial stimuli, nor do they support theories of prediction error causing changes in the coupling between apical dendrites and somata.
ER -