Rule-based modulation of a sensorimotor transformation across cortical areas

Flexible responses to sensory stimuli based on changing rules are critical for adapting to a dynamic environment. However, it remains unclear how the brain encodes and uses rule information to guide behavior. Here, we made single-unit recordings while head-fixed mice performed a cross-modal sensory selection task where they switched between two rules: licking in response to tactile stimuli while rejecting visual stimuli, or vice versa. Along a cortical sensorimotor processing stream including the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory areas, and the medial (MM) and anterolateral (ALM) motor areas, single-neuron activity distinguished between the two rules both prior to and in response to the tactile stimulus. We hypothesized that neural populations in these areas would show rule-dependent preparatory states, which would shape the subsequent sensory processing and behavior. This hypothesis was supported for the motor cortical areas (MM and ALM) by findings that (1) the current task rule could be decoded from pre-stimulus population activity; (2) neural subspaces containing the population activity differed between the two rules; and (3) optogenetic disruption of pre-stimulus states impaired task performance. Our findings indicate that flexible action selection in response to sensory input can occur via configuration of preparatory states in the motor cortex.