Behavioral state tunes mouse vision to ethological features through pupil dilation

Abstract

Sensory processing changes with behavioral context to increase computational flexibility. In the visual system, active behavioral states enhance sensory responses but typically leave the preferred stimuli of neurons unchanged. Here we find that behavioral state does modulate stimulus selectivity in mouse visual cortex in the context of colored natural scenes. Using population imaging, behavior, pharmacology, and deep neural networks, we identified a shift of color selectivity towards ultraviolet stimuli exclusively caused by pupil dilation, resulting in a dynamic switch from rod to cone photoreceptors, extending their role beyond night and day vision. This facilitated the detection of ethological stimuli, such as aerial predators against the twilight sky. In contrast to previous studies that have used pupil dilation as an indirect measure of brain state, our results suggest that the brain uses pupil dilation itself to differentially recruit rods and cones on short timescales to tune visual representations to behavioral demands.