Topic: recurrent circuitry

Recent experiments that stimulate a small number of excitatory neurons appear to offer conflicting results regarding the role of recurrent circuitry in the mouse primary visual cortex. Marshel et al. (2019) found that stimulating 20 neurons could drive behavior, suggesting that this circuitry has strong amplifying qualities. However, Chettih and Harvey (2019) show that single-neuron perturbations drive network suppression and feature-specific competition. Here, we attempt to reconcile these results using multiphoton holographic optogenetics and mathematical modeling. Specifically, we use spa