Experience-Dependent Plasticity to Visual Sequences in Mouse Anterior Cingulate Cortex Reflects Familiarity.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Systems Neuroscience

Background:

• The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is crucial for cognitive control, attention, and prediction.
• Mouse ACC integrates visual information for behavioral guidance.
• Experience-dependent plasticity in ACC's visual processing remains less understood compared to V1.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether ACC plasticity to visual sequences reflects stimulus familiarity or expectation.
• To characterize the nature of experience-dependent plasticity in mouse ACC.
• To examine ACC function in a mouse model of Angelman syndrome (AS).

Main Methods:

• Recorded visually evoked responses in awake, head-fixed mice (male and female) trained with visual sequences.
• Utilized single-orientation stimuli to test plasticity induction.
• Compared ACC and V1 plasticity in AS model mice versus controls.

Main Results:

• Visual sequences induced plasticity in ACC, altering response timing based on familiarity with the initial stimulus.
• Plasticity could be induced even with single-orientation stimuli, suggesting a broader phenomenon.
• AS model mice exhibited abnormal ACC responses to familiar visual stimuli, contrasting with normal V1 plasticity.

Conclusions:

• ACC plasticity to visual stimuli is stimulus-specific, termed stimulus-specific response plasticity in timing (SRPT), and does not strictly require sequences.
• This study elucidates how mouse ACC adapts to familiar visual information.
• Impaired ACC function in AS model mice highlights its role in neurodevelopmental disorders.