Task Engagement Gates Interareal Communication Geometry in the Mouse Thalamocortical-Midbrain Visual Circuit
- 1Israel Institute of Technology
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{amalberti2026task,
title = {{Task Engagement Gates Interareal Communication Geometry in the Mouse Thalamocortical-Midbrain Visual Circuit}},
author = {L. Amalberti and M. Hauer and C. Bennett and S. R. Olsen and D. Dahmen and S. Recanatesi},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.751810},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751810v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Task Engagement Gates Interareal Communication Geometry in the Mouse Thalamocortical-Midbrain Visual Circuit
AU - L. Amalberti
AU - M. Hauer
AU - C. Bennett
AU - S. R. Olsen
AU - D. Dahmen
AU - S. Recanatesi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.751810
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751810v1
AB - 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.
ER -