Inhibitory microcircuits for top-down plasticity of sensory representations

Abstract

Rewards influence plasticity of early sensory representations. The underlying changes in cir-cuitry are however unclear. Recent experimental findings suggest that inhibitory circuits regu-late learning. In addition, inhibitory neurons are highly modulated by diverse long-range inputs,including reward signals. We, therefore, hypothesise that inhibitory plasticity plays a major rolein adjusting stimulus representations. We investigate how top-down modulation by rewards in-teracts with local plasticity to induce long-lasting changes in circuitry. Using a computationalmodel of layer 2/3 primary visual cortex, we demonstrate how interneuron circuits can storeinformation about rewarded stimuli to instruct long-term changes in excitatory connectivity inthe absence of further reward. In our model, stimulus-tuned somatostatin-positive interneuronsdevelop strong connections to parvalbumin-positive interneurons during reward such that theyselectively disinhibit the pyramidal layer henceforth. This triggers excitatory plasticity, leadingto increased stimulus representation. We make specific testable predictions and show that thistwo-stage model allows for translation invariance of the learned representation.