Experience shapes activity dynamics and stimulus coding of VIP inhibitory and excitatory cells in visual cortex

Cortical circuits are flexible and can change with experience and learning. However, the effects of experience on specific cell types including distinct inhibitory types are not well understood. Here we studied how excitatory and VIP inhibitory cells in layer 2/3 of mouse visual cortex were impacted by visual experience in the context of a behavioral task. Mice learned to perform an image change detection task with a set of eight natural scene images. Subsequently, during 2-photon imaging experiments, mice performed the task with these familiar images and three additional sets of novel images. Familiar images evoked less overall activity in both excitatory and VIP populations, and excitatory cells showed higher selectivity for familiar images. The temporal dynamics of VIP cells differed markedly between novel and familiar images: VIP cells were stimulus-driven for novel images but displayed ramping activity during the inter-stimulus interval for familiar images. Moreover, when a familiar stimulus was omitted, VIP cells showed extended ramping activity until the subsequent image flash. This prominent shift in response dynamics suggests that VIP cells may adopt different modes of processing during familiar versus novel conditions. HIGHLIGHTS Experience with natural images in a change detection task reduces overall activity of cortical excitatory and VIP inhibitory cells Encoding of natural images is sharpened with experience in excitatory neurons VIP cells are stimulus-driven by novel images but show pre-stimulus ramping for familiar images VIP cells show strong ramping activity during the omission of an expected stimulus

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