A Standardized Nonvisual Behavioral Event Is Broadcasted Homogeneously across Cortical Visual Areas without Modulating Visual Responses.

Multiple recent studies have shown that motor activity greatly impacts the activity of primary sensory areas like V1. Yet, the role of this motor related activity in sensory processing is still unclear. Here, we dissect how these behavior signals are broadcast to different layers and areas of the visual cortex. To do so, we leveraged a standardized and spontaneous behavioral fidget event in passively viewing mice. Importantly, this behavior event had no relevance to any ongoing task allowing us to compare its neuronal correlates with visually relevant behaviors (e.g., running). A large two-photon Ca 2+ imaging database of neuronal responses uncovered four neural response types during fidgets that were consistent in their proportion and response patterns across all visual areas and layers of the visual cortex. Indeed, the layer and area identity could not be decoded above chance level based only on neuronal recordings. In contrast to running behavior, fidget evoked neural responses that were independent to visual processing. The broad availability of visually orthogonal standardized behavior signals could be a key component in how the cortex selects, learns and binds local sensory information with motor outputs. Contrary to behaviorally relevant motor outputs, irrelevant motor signals could project to separate local neural subspaces. Significance Statement Recent studies have shown contextual and behavioral variables to dominate brain-wide activity, yet it is unknown what role they play across the majority of cortex. To study their impact, we leveraged a large two-photon dataset collected in mice passively viewing a battery of visual stimuli. We characterized the neuronal response of neurons of the visual cortex to a standardized fidget behavior. We found that as much as 47% of excitatory neurons show significant co-activity with fidgets. Throughout all areas and layers we recorded from, those responses were distributed across three robust neural response types. Further analysis showed no interaction between fidget neural events and cells' visual stimulus responses, contrasting with feedback neural signals induced by running. These contrasting response distribution patterns suggest that behavioral neuronal correlates are broadly available but will modulate sensory responses depending on their relevance to local sensory inputs.