Pyramidal cell types drive functionally distinct cortical activity patterns during decision-making

This study investigated the cell types comprising cortical circuits to understand how they generate complex behavior. Using genetic and retrograde labeling to target pyramidal tract (PT), intratelencephalic (IT), and corticostriatal (CStr) projection neurons, researchers measured cortex-wide activity during an auditory decision task. Each pyramidal neuron (PyN) type drove unique neural dynamics at local and cortex-wide scales. Optogenetic inactivation revealed distinct functional roles: PT neurons in parietal cortex were crucial for stimulus perception, while all PyN types in frontal cortex were essential for accurate choices, showing distinct choice tuning. The findings reveal that rich, cell-type-specific cortical dynamics shape perceptual decisions.

Simon Musall, Xiaonan R. Sun, Hemanth Mohan, Xu An, Steven Gluf, Shu-Jing Li, Rhonda Drewes, Emma Cravo, Irene Lenzi, Chaoqun Yin, Björn M. Kampa, Anne K. Churchland