Topic: layer 6b

In the murine sensorimotor cortex, Drd1a-Cre+ neurons in layer 6b project to higher-order thalamic nuclei and are the only cortical projection neurons responsive to the wake-promoting neuropeptide orexin, suggesting that L6-Drd1a neurons play an important role in sensory processing, brain state modulation, attention, and cognition (Hoerder-Suabedissen et al., 2018; Zolnik et al., 2023). In the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), whether these neurons play an analogous role in gating cortical arousal remains poorly understood. Thus, we investigated the effects of ‘silencing’ L6-Drd1a neurons in a