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Retinal Origin of Direction Selectivity in the Superior Colliculus

Detecting visual features in the environment such as motion direction is crucial for survival. The circuit mechanisms that give rise to direction selectivity in a major visual center, the superior colliculus (SC), are entirely unknown. Here, we optogenetically isolate the retinal inputs that individ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shi, Xuefeng, Barchini, Jad, Ledesma, Hector Acaron, Koren, David, Jin, Yanjiao, Liu, Xiaorong, Wei, Wei, Cang, Jianhua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374021/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28192394
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4498
Descripción
Sumario:Detecting visual features in the environment such as motion direction is crucial for survival. The circuit mechanisms that give rise to direction selectivity in a major visual center, the superior colliculus (SC), are entirely unknown. Here, we optogenetically isolate the retinal inputs that individual direction-selective SC neurons receive and find that they are already selective as a result of precisely converging inputs from similarly-tuned retinal ganglion cells. The direction selective retinal input is linearly amplified by the intracollicular circuits without changing its preferred direction or level of selectivity. Finally, using 2-photon calcium imaging, we show that SC direction selectivity is dramatically reduced in transgenic mice that have decreased retinal selectivity. Together, our studies demonstrate a retinal origin of direction selectivity in the SC, and reveal a central visual deficit as a consequence of altered feature selectivity in the retina.