Scaling down of balanced excitation and inhibition by active behavioral states in auditory cortex

The authors report that in mouse auditory cortex, the sensory-evoked spike responses of layer 2/3 (L2/3) excitatory cells were scaled down with preserved sensory tuning when animals transitioned from quiescence to active behaviors, while L4 and thalamic responses were unchanged. This laminar-specific gain control could be attributed to an enhancement of L1-mediated inhibition.