Lack of Evidence for Stereotypical Direction Columns in the Mouse Superior Colliculus
Lack of Evidence for Stereotypical Direction Columns in the Mouse Superior Colliculus
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.1155-20.2020
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发表时间：
2021-01-20
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Cang, Jianhua
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chen, Hui;Savier, Elise L.;Cang, Jianhua
视觉系统中的神经元可以根据其响应特性（例如感受野位置和特征选择性）进行空间组织。例如，许多哺乳动物物种的视觉皮层包含方向和方向柱，具有相似偏好的神经元聚集在那里。在这里，我们研究是否存在这样的柱状结构的小鼠上级丘（SC），一个突出的视觉中心的运动处理。通过在成年雄性和雌性小鼠中进行大规模生理记录和双光子钙成像，我们发现小鼠SC中的方向选择性神经元并没有组织成作为其偏好方向的函数的刻板列，尽管在少数小鼠中可以看到相似调谐的神经元簇。附近的神经元可以以很大程度上不依赖于位置的方式偏好相似或相反的方向。无论动物状态（麻醉与清醒、奔跑与静止）、SC深度（最浅层与SC深层）、研究技术（钙成像与电生理学）和刺激类型（漂移光栅与移动点、全视野与小斑块）如何，这一发现均适用。总之，这些结果挑战了最近的报告，区域特定的组织在小鼠SC，并揭示了运动方向是如何表示在这个重要的视觉中心。
Neurons in the visual system can be spatially organized according to their response properties such as receptive field location and feature selectivity. For example, the visual cortex of many mammalian species contains orientation and direction columns where neurons with similar preferences are clustered. Here, we examine whether such a columnar structure exists in the mouse superior colliculus (SC), a prominent visual center for motion processing. By performing large-scale physiological re-cording and two-photon calcium imaging in adult male and female mice, we show that direction-selective neurons in the mouse SC are not organized into stereotypical columns as a function of their preferred directions, although clusters of simi-larly tuned neurons are seen in a minority of mice. Nearby neurons can prefer similar or opposite directions in a largely position-independent manner. This finding holds true regardless of animal state (anesthetized vs awake, running vs station-ary), SC depth (most superficial lamina vs deeper in the SC), research technique (calcium imaging vs electrophysiology), and stimulus type (drifting gratings vs moving dots, full field vs small patch). Together, these results challenge recent reports of region-specific organizations in the mouse SC and reveal how motion direction is represented in this important visual center.