Asymmetric distribution of color-opponent response types across mouse visual cortex supports superior color vision in the sky

Color is an important visual feature that informs behavior, and the retinal basis for color vision has been studied across various vertebrate species. While we know how color information is processed in visual brain areas of primates, we have limited understanding of how it is organized beyond the retina in other species, including most dichromatic mammals. In this study, we systematically characterized how color is represented in the primary visual cortex (V1) of mice. Using large-scale neuronal recordings and a luminance and color noise stimulus, we found that more than a third of neurons in mouse V1 are color-opponent in their receptive field center, while the receptive field surround predominantly captures luminance contrast. Furthermore, we found that color-opponency is especially pronounced in posterior V1 that encodes the sky, matching the statistics of mouse natural scenes. Using unsupervised clustering, we demonstrate that the asymmetry in color representations across cortex can be explained by an uneven distribution of green-On/UV-Off color-opponent response types that are represented in the upper visual field. This type of color-opponency in the receptive field center was not present at the level of the retinal output and, therefore, is likely computed in the cortex by integrating upstream visual signals. Finally, a simple model with natural scene-inspired parametric stimuli shows that green-On/UV-Off color-opponent response types may enhance the detection of “predatory”-like dark UV-objects in noisy daylight scenes. The results from this study highlight the relevance of color processing in the mouse visual system and contribute to our understanding of how color information is organized in the visual hierarchy across species. More broadly, they support the hypothesis that visual cortex combines upstream information towards computing neuronal selectivity to behaviorally-relevant sensory features.