Intracortical Multiplication of Thalamocortical Signals in Mouse Auditory Cortex

Cortical processing of sensory information initiates from the transformation of thalamically-relayed signals. By optogenetically silencing intracortical circuits to isolate thalamic inputs to layer 4 neurons, we show that intracortical excitation linearly amplifies thalamocortical responses underlying frequency and direction selectivity with preserved spectral range and tuning, and prolongs the response duration. This signal pre-amplification and prolongation enhances the salience of thalamocortically-relayed information and ensures its robust, faithful and more persistent representation.