Reviewer #3 (Public Review):
Acetylcholine and Norepinephrine are two of the most powerful neuromodulators in the CNS. Recently developments of new methods allow monitoring of the dynamic changes in the activity of these agents in the brain in vivo. Here the authors explore the relationship between the dynamic changes in behavioral states and those of ACh and NE in the cortex. Since neuromodulatory systems cover most of the cortical tissue, it is essential to be able to monitor the activity of these systems in many cortical areas simultaneously. This is a daunting task because the axons releasing NE and ACh are very thin. To my knowledge, this study is the first to use mesoscopic imaging over a wide range of the cortex at the single axon resolution in awake animals. They find that almost any observable change in behavioral state is accompanied by a transient change in the activity of cortical ACh and NE axonal segments. Whisking is significantly correlated with ACh and NE. The authors also explore the spatial pattern of activity of ACh and NE axons over the dorsal cortex and find that most of the dynamics is synchronous over a wide spatial scale. They look for deviation from this pattern (which I will discuss later). Lastly, the authors monitor the activity of cortical interneurons capable of releasing ACh.
Comments:<br /> 1. On a broad overview, I find the discussion of behavioral states, brain states, and neuromodulation states quite confusing. To begin with, I am not convinced by the statement that "brain states or behavioral states change on a moment-to-moment basis." I find that the division of brain activity into microstates (e.g., microarousal) is counterproductive. After all, at the extreme, going along this path, we might eventually have an extremely high dimensional space of all neuronal activity, and any change in any neuron would define a new brain state. Similarly, mice can walk without whisking, can whisk without walking, can walk and whisk, are all these different behavioral states? And if so, are they all associated with different brain states? Most importantly, in the context of this manuscript, one would expect that different states (brain, behavior) would be associated with at least four potential states of the ACh x NE system (high ACh and High NE, High ACh and Low NE, etc.). However, the reported findings indicate that the two systems are highly synchronized (or at least correlated), and both transiently go on with any change from a passive state to an active state. Therefore, the manuscript describes a rather confined relationship of the neuromodulation systems with the rather rich potential of brain and behavioral states. Of course, this is only my viewpoint, and the authors are not obliged to accept it, but they should recognize that the viewpoint they take for granted is not shared by all and consider acknowledging it in the manuscript.<br /> 2. Most of the manuscript (bar one case) reports nearly identical dynamics of ACh and NE. Is that a principle? What makes these systems behave so similarly? Why have two systems that act nearly the same? Still, if there is a difference, it is the time scale of the ACh compared to the NE. Can the authors explain this difference or speculate what drives it?<br /> 3. Whisker activity explains most strongly the neuromodulators dynamics, but pupil dilation almost does not (in contrast to many previous reports including reports of the same authors). If I am not mistaken, this was nearly ignored in the presentation of the results and the discussion section. Could the author elaborate more on what is the reason for this discrepancy?<br /> 4. I find the question of homogenous vs. heterogenous signaling of both the ACh and NE systems quite important. It is one thing if the two systems just broadcast "one bit" information to the whole brain or if there are neuromodulation signals that are confined in space and are uncorrelated with the global signal. However, the way the analysis of this question is presented in the manuscript is very difficult to follow, and eventually, the take-home message is unclear. The discussion section indicates that the results support that beyond a global synchronized signal, there is a significant amount of heterogeneous activity. I think this question could benefit from further analysis. I suggest trying to demonstrate more specific examples of axonal ROIs where their activity is decorrelated with the global signal, test how consistent this property is (for those ROIs), and find a behavioral parameter that it predicts. Also, in the discussion part, I am missing a discussion of the potential mechanism that allows this heterogeneity. On the one hand, an area may receive NE/ACh innervation from different BF/LC neurons, which are not completely synchronized. But those neurons also innervate other areas, so what is the expected eventual pattern? Also, do the results support neuromodulation control by local interneuron circuits targeting the axons (as is the case with dopaminergic axons in the Basal Ganglia)?<br /> 5. The axonal signal seems to be very similar across the cortex. I am not sure this is technically possible, but given that NE axons are thin and non-myelinated and taking advantage of the mesoscopic scale, could the author find any clue for the propagation of the signal on the rostral to caudal axis?<br /> 6. While the section about local VCIN is consistent with the story, it is somehow a sidetrack and ends the manuscript on the wrong note. I leave it to the authors to decide but recommend them to reconsider if and where to include it. Unfortunately, the figure attached was on a very poor resolution, and I could not look into the details, so I am afraid that I could not review this section properly.

