Zhixiao Su, Polina Kosillo, Kanghoon Jung, Shuonan Chen, Mathew T Summers, Alex Piet, Han Hou, Kenta M Hagihara, Drew Friedmann, Olivia Ho-Shing, Matthew I Becker, Thomas Chartrand, Xinxin Yin, Peter Grotz, Ella Hilton-VanOsdall, Margaret Lee, Rajvi Javeri, Samantha L Tuggle, Naveen Ouellette, Holly Myers, Judith Baka, Camilo Laiton, Kaelin Wulf, John Rohde, Alessio P Buccino, Cameron Arshadi, Di Wang, Sharmishtaa Seshamani, Sonya Vasquez, Carolyn M Eng, Douglas R Ollerenshaw, Nick Dee, Tamara Casper, Windy Ho, Matthew Jungert, Atlas Jordan, Elliot Phillips, Anish Bhaswanth Chakka, Kamiliam Nasirova, Krista Blake, Audrey McCutcheon, Megan Koch, Maria Camila Vergara, Kimberly A Smith, Tim Jarsky, Nicholas Lusk, Mara C P Rue, Xiaoyin Chen, Joshua H Siegle, Adam K Glaser, Brian R Lee, Karel Svoboda, Yoh Isogai, Jayaram V Chandrashekar, Jeremiah Y Cohen
Noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine) is released throughout most of the central nervous system by neurons in the locus coeruleus1-4. Here we identified a relationship between the morphologies, gene expression and activity of noradrenergic neurons in locus coeruleus 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 locus coeruleus. In a behavioural task requiring continuous learning from actions, dorsal locus coeruleus neurons projecting to isocortex were activated when mice switched choices and by reward-prediction-error signals that drive learning. Background activity of neurons in ventral locus coeruleus 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 behaviour.