ABSTRACT After entering the cerebral cortex, sensory information spreads through six different horizontal neuronal layers that are interconnected by vertical axonal projections. It is

believed that through these projections layers can influence each other's response to sensory stimuli, but the specific role that each layer has in cortical processing is still poorly

understood. Here we show that layer six in the primary visual cortex of the mouse has a crucial role in controlling the gain of visually evoked activity in neurons of the upper layers

without changing their tuning to orientation. This gain modulation results from the coordinated action of layer six intracortical projections to superficial layers and deep projections to

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CONTROLS NEURAL AND PERCEPTUAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY Article 03 March 2025 ON/OFF DOMAINS SHAPE RECEPTIVE FIELD STRUCTURE IN MOUSE VISUAL CORTEX Article Open access 05 May 2022 LAMINAR

COMPARTMENTALIZATION OF ATTENTION MODULATION IN AREA V4 ALIGNS WITH THE DEMANDS OF VISUAL PROCESSING HIERARCHY IN THE CORTEX Article Open access 09 November 2023 REFERENCES * Lorente de No,

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reliable transmission. _Neuron_ 71, 180–194 (2011) Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to M. Carandini, J. Isaacson and

the members of the Scanziani and Isaacson laboratories for helpful discussions of this project, to J. Isaacson, R. Malinow and T. Komiyama for providing feedback on the manuscript, to P.

Abelkop for histological help and neonatal viral injections, to J. Evora for mouse colony support and genotyping, to B. Atallah for sharing the technique for silencing the cortex by

photostimulation of parvalbumin neurons and for help with the _in vivo_ recording setup and to W. Bruns for help coding analysis software. We thank the UCSD Neuroscience Microscopy Facility

(P30 NS047101) for the use of their imaging equipment. S.R.O. and H.A. were supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. D.S.B was supported by a UCSD

Neurobiology Training Grant (NINDS: 5T32NS007220-28). M.S. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This work was also supported National Institutes of Health grant RO1

NS069010 and by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Shawn R. Olsen and Dante S. Bortone: These authors contributed equally to this work. AUTHORS AND

AFFILIATIONS * Neurobiology Section and Department of Neuroscience, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, University of California San Diego, La Jolla,

92093-0634, California, USA Shawn R. Olsen, Dante S. Bortone, Hillel Adesnik & Massimo Scanziani Authors * Shawn R. Olsen View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Dante S. Bortone View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Hillel Adesnik View author publications You can also search

for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Massimo Scanziani View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS H.A. performed the initial

physiological characterization of the NTSR1-Cre expression system with optogenetic tools. H.A. also developed the _in vivo_ awake recording preparation on the treadmill. S.R.O. performed all

_in vivo_ recordings. D.S.B. performed all _in vitro_ recordings and anatomical reconstructions. S.R.O. and M.S. designed the study. M.S. wrote the paper. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS

Correspondence to Shawn R. Olsen or Massimo Scanziani. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY

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control by layer six in cortical circuits of vision. _Nature_ 483, 47–52 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10835 Download citation * Received: 29 August 2011 * Accepted: 04 January 2012

* Published: 22 February 2012 * Issue Date: 01 March 2012 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10835 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this

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