Extended Data Fig. 9: Additional analyses of the effects induced by selective microablation of inhibitory neurons on the representational map and response characteristics of individual neurons.

a. Cumulative distribution of baseline normalized correlation coefficient on day 5 in the representational map for each experimental cohort (n = 42 and 59 FOVs for inhibitory neuron ablation and control cohorts, respectively). In inhibitory neuron ablation experiment, 91.7 ± 1.5% was successfully ablated out of the targeted neurons, based on the criteria we already described in Methods. Same as Extended Data Fig. 5a, to compare the effect of ablation between inhibitory neuron ablation and sound responsive ablation cohorts on the day after microabtaion, difference in these cumulative distributions was tested by Dunn’s test as well as two-sided Mann-Whitney U test with FDR correction. These cumulative distributions on day 5 were not statistically different by definition between the groups (Dunn’s test for all group combinations in both diagonal and non-diagonal elements, Q < Qcritical; two-sided Mann-Whitney U test, adjusted p values > 0.5). b. Same as a, but the cumulative distributions of normalized correlation on day 7. Especially for diagonal elements, the distributions in both sound responsive ablation and inhibitory neuron ablation cohort shifted toward lower correlation than control (Two-sided Mann-Whitney U test, adjusted p-values between experimental cohorts; two-colored asterisks, Diagonal elements: Sound responsive ablation vs. control: p = 0.016; Inhibitory vs. control: p = 0.020; Sound responsive ablation vs. inhibitory: p = 0.51; * p < 0.05; Dunn’s test, sound responsive ablation vs. control, Q = 3.00 (> Qcritical); inhibitory neuron ablation vs. control, Q < Qcritical). For non-diagonal elements, the distributions in sound responsive ablation cohort was lower than that in control (Two-sided Mann-Whitney U test, with adjusted p values between experimental cohorts; two-colored asterisks, * p < 0.05; Dunn’s test, sound responsive ablation vs. control, Q = 3.48 (> Qcritical); Q < Qcritical for the other group comparison). c. Same as a, but during day 9–11. On the other hand, late after microablation (day 9–11), while the distribution in sound responsive ablation went back to baseline level, the distribution in inhibitory neuron ablation, especially the diagonal elements maintained lower correlation than the other cohorts (Dunn’s test, inhibitory neuron ablation vs control, Q = 2.44 (> Qcritical); sound responsive ablation vs. inhibitory neuron ablation, Q = 2.43 (> Qcritical); two-sided Mann-Whitney U test, adjusted p-values between experimental cohorts, p ≥ 0.056). d. Same as Fig. 3e, but normalized tuning curve of responsive neurons in inhibitory neuron ablation. Left: the colormap of the baseline normalized tuning curve on day 7 according to the best response amplitude bins. Right: normalized tuning curves overlaid across days (mean ± s.e.m. across mice). Two-sided t-test of average of normalized amplitudes across the stimulus with 2nd largest amplitude to the last stimulus between baseline days vs. day 7: p = 0.20. e. Same as Fig. 3g, but normalized non-diagonal correlations in the similarity matrix constructed from the population vectors shuffled across FOVs (Methods) in inhibitory neuron ablation (mean ± s.e.m. across mice). Two-sided t-test of normalized correlation during all post-ablation days between inhibitory neuron ablation and control. p = 0.33. f. Same as Fig. 3h, but the colormap of the change in fraction of responsive neuron pairs with high signal correlation from baseline according to the best response amplitude in inhibitory neuron ablation cohort (n = 6 mice). Two-way ANOVA, p = 0.062 across days; p = 0.0022 across amplitude bins. n = 6 mice for inhibitory neuron ablation cohort for d-f. See Supplementary Table 2. for detailed statistics.