Extended Data Fig. 2: Sounds evoke instructed and uninstructed orofacial movements.

(a) Sounds evoke brief whisking and eye twitching movements in NE mice (example session). Upper images show heatmap of the increase in videoME overlaid on one reference frame. Lower trace shows videoME averaged over auditory trials with dots highlighting time points of upper frames. (b) Same as a, but for an example MST session. Here auditory trials not only evoked whisking and eye movements (uninstructed), but also continued instrumental licking movements as mice were rewarded for reporting auditory stimuli. (c) To further test whether the increase in motor activity was not associated with licking behavior, we continued sensory stimuli but removed the lick spout. Blocks of active trials (with lick spout, left image) and passive trials (without lick spout) were interleaved during a session. (d) The increase in videoME normally seen following visual stimuli (due to report-related licking movements) was absent during passive blocks. On the other hand, auditory stimuli continued to evoke orofacial movements during passive blocks in the absence of licking to a rewarded lick spout. These results are in line with the comparison between cohorts (Fig. 2b) where unrewarded auditory stimuli (but not unrewarded visual stimuli) still evoke orofacial movements. Motor-related confounds are thus important to control for not only in auditory behavioral tasks, but also naive animals. (e) Same as (a, b), but for auditory trials during passive blocks of an example MST session. Auditory trials continued to evoke uninstructed orofacial movements, but less prolonged due to the absence of licking movements.