RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Projection-specific visual feature encoding by layer 5 cortical subnetworks JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 028910 DO 10.1101/028910 A1 Gyorgy Lur A1 Martin A. Vinck A1 Lan Tang A1 Jessica A. Cardin A1 Michael J. Higley YR 2015 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/10/13/028910.abstract AB Primary neocortical sensory areas act as central hubs, distributing afferent information to numerous cortical and subcortical structures. However, it remains unclear whether each downstream target receives distinct versions of sensory information. We used in vivo calcium imaging combined with retrograde tracing to monitor visual response properties of three distinct subpopulations of projection neurons in primary visual cortex. Our results indicate that corticotectal (CT) cells exhibit low contrast thresholds and broad tuning for orientation and spatial frequency, suggesting they act primarily as detectors. Corticostriatal (CS) and corticocortical (CC) cells are more selective for visual stimuli, suggesting they act as discriminators. Noise correlational analyses further support the hypothesis that CT cells integrate information across diverse layer 5 populations, whereas CS and CC cells form more selectively interconnected groups. Overall, our findings demonstrate the existence of functional subnetworks within layer 5 that route distinct streams of visual information to behaviorally relevant downstream targets.