The claustrum is a small subcortical structure with widespread connections to disparate regions of the cortex. However, the impact of the claustrum on cortical activity is not fully understood, particularly beyond frontal areas. Here, using optogenetics and multi-regional Neuropixels recordings from over 15,000 cortical neurons in awake mice, we demonstrate that the effect of claustrum input to the cortex differs depending on brain area, layer, and cell type. Brief claustrum stimulation, producing approximately 1 spike per claustrum neuron, affects many fast spiking (FS; putative inhibitory) but relatively fewer regular-spiking (RS; putative excitatory) cortical neurons and leads to a modest decrease in population activity in frontal cortical areas. Prolonged claustrum stimulation affects many more cortical neurons and can increase or decrease spiking activity. More excitation occurs in posterior regions and superficial layers, while inhibition predominates in frontal regions and deeper layers. These findings suggest that claustro-cortical circuits are organized into functional modules.

屏状核是一个小的皮质下结构，与皮质的不同区域有广泛的联系。然而，屏状核对皮质活动的影响尚不完全清楚，尤其是在额叶区域之外。在这里，我们使用来自清醒小鼠超过 15,000 个皮质神经元的光遗传学和多区域 Neuropixels 记录，证明屏状核输入对皮质的影响因大脑区域、层和细胞类型而异。短暂的屏状核刺激，每个屏状核神经元产生大约 1 个尖峰，影响许多快速尖峰脉冲（FS；推定的抑制性）但相对较少的常规尖峰脉冲（RS；推定的兴奋性）皮质神经元，并导致额叶皮质区域的人口活动适度减少。延长的屏状核刺激会影响更多的皮层神经元，并可增加或减少尖峰活动。更多的兴奋发生在后部区域和表层，而抑制主要发生在额叶区域和深层。这些发现表明，幽闭皮质回路被组织成功能模块。