Conclusions
Pharmacological blockade of β-AR in V1 improves perceptual visual detectability by modifying the SNR of neuronal activity.
Methods
We performed extracellular multi-point recordings from V1 of rats performing a go/no-go visual detection task under the head-fixed condition. A β-AR blocker, propranolol (10 mM), was topically administered onto the V1 surface, and the drug effect on behavioral and neuronal activities was quantified by comparing pre-and post-drug administration.
Results
The topical administration of propranolol onto the V1 surface significantly improved the task performance. An analysis of the multi-unit activity in V1 showed that propranolol significantly suppressed spontaneous activity and facilitated the visual response of the recording sites in V1. We further calculated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), finding that the SNR was significantly improved after propranolol administration. Conclusions: Pharmacological blockade of β-AR in V1 improves perceptual visual detectability by modifying the SNR of neuronal activity.