Hierarchy in sensory processing reflected by innervation balance on cortical interneurons

Sensory processing is subjected to modulation by behavioral contexts that are often mediated by long-range inputs to cortical interneurons, but their selectivity to different types of interneurons remains largely unknown. Using rabies-virus tracing and optogenetics-assisted recording, we analyzed the long-range connections to various brain regions along the hierarchy of visual processing, including primary visual cortex, medial association cortices, and frontal cortices. We found that hierarchical corticocortical and thalamocortical connectivity is reflected by the relative weights of inputs to parvalbumin-positive (PV(+)) and vasoactive intestinal peptide–positive (VIP(+)) neurons within the conserved local circuit motif, with bottom-up and top-down inputs preferring PV(+) and VIP(+) neurons, respectively. Our algorithms based on innervation weights for these two types of local interneurons generated testable predictions of the hierarchical position of many brain areas. These results support the notion that preferential long-range inputs to specific local interneurons are essential for the hierarchical information flow in the brain.