Topographic structure and function of locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons
Norepinephrine (NE) is released throughout most of the central nervous system by neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC). We found a relationship between the morphologies, gene expression, and activity of LC-NE neurons in mice. Axonal projections of individual neurons were extensive but largely confined to subsets of brain regions. Axonal projections and graded gene expression correlated with locations of cell bodies in LC. In a behavioral task requiring ongoing learning from actions, neurons in dorsal LC projecting to the cerebral cortex were excited when mice made a different choice from the previous one and by reward prediction errors, a signal driving learning. Background activity of neurons in ventral LC was higher when mice ignored stimuli indicating potential reward availability. These observations reveal a topographically organized structure and function of a neurotransmitter system and show that it contains learning signals for flexible behavior.
Authors
- Nicholas A. Lusk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6346-2083)
- Matthew I. Becker
- Jeremiah Y. Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4768-7124)
- Tamara Casper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1638-3651)
- Joshua H. Siegle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7736-4844)
- S Chen
- Alex T. Piet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6529-1414)
- Alessio Paolo Buccino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3661-527X)
- Polina Kosillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1944-9460)
- Tim Jarsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4399-539X)
- María Camila Vergara
- Kanghoon Jung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5381-5161)
- Zhixiao Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0138-7433)
- Mathew T. Summers
- Thomas Chartrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7093-8681)
- Naveen Ouellette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4472-0880)
- Douglas R. Ollerenshaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3692-1835)
- Jayaram Chandrashekar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6412-0114)
- Xiaoyin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2807-6125)
- Nick Dee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2831-9254)
- Yoh Isogai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7285-1603)
- Kimberly A. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3142-1970)
- Han Hou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4590-7891)
- Carolyn M. Eng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1081-6463)
- Samantha L. Black (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1442-8238)
- Cameron Arshadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1885-080X)
- Adam K. Glaser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3558-8994)
- Drew Friedmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2138-8177)
- Kenta M. Hagihara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0064-0852)
- Windy Ho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6200-9906)
- Sharmishtaa Seshamani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7289-3184)
- Elliot J Phillips (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8517-774X)
- Mara C.P. Rue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4305-7838)
- Karel Svoboda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6670-7362)
- Camilo Laiton
- John R. Rohde
- Brian R Lee
- Rajvi Javeri
- Ella Hilton-VanOsdall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0325-9470)
- Matthew Jungert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6600-9250)
- Megan Koch
- Krista Blake
- Audrey McCutcheon
- Atlas Jordan
- Sonya Vasquez
- Holly Myers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2156-6471)
- Di Wang
- Kaelin Wulf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8394-8900)
- Peter Grotz
- Olivia Ho-Shing
- Kamiliam Nasirova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4672-5045)
- Anish Bhaswanth Chakka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1095-1817)
- Margaret Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1245-5363)
Institutions
- Allen Institute for Brain Science (US)
- Allen Institute (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.10.717727
- Primary Topic
- Neural dynamics and brain function
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00