Effect of corticotectal tract lesions on relative motion selectivity in the monkey superior colliculus

Many cells in the superficial layers of the monkey superior colliculus are sensitive to the relative motion between a small target moving through the classic receptive field and a textured, moving background pattern that fills the visual field beyond the classic receptive field. The cells respond well when motion of the target differs from that of the background, but their responses are suppressed when the target moves in phase with the background. To determine whether this relative motion sensitivity depends on input to the colliculus from visual cortex, we studied colliculus cells in immobilized, anesthetized monkeys after unilateral thermocoagulation, or anesthetic blockade, of the corticotectal tract at the level of the pulvinar. In the colliculus ipsilateral to the corticotectal tract lesions, relative motion sensitivity was significantly reduced when compared either with the colliculus in intact animals or with the colliculus contralateral to the lesion. However, a moving-background stimulus still had a modest suppressive effect compared with a stationary background ("background motion sensitivity"), as is the case for intact animals. Anesthetic blockade of the corticotectal tract had similar effects; relative motion sensitivity, but not background motion sensitivity, was lost following injection of mepivacaine or bupivacaine. Pulvinar cell loss alone, induced by kainic acid injection, had no effect on relative motion sensitivity in the colliculus. The corticotectal tract lesions, but not the anesthetic injections, also had minor effects on flash-evoked responses and spontaneous discharge rates; these effects may reflect a retrograde response of some tectopulvinar cells to injury of their axons by the corticotectal tract lesions. In the colliculus opposite the corticotectal tract lesion, relative motion sensitivity was similar to that in normal animals. However, responses in the presence of a moving background were enhanced, suggesting that removal of cortical input to one colliculus may disinhibit the contralateral colliculus, a phenomenon reminiscent of the Sprague effect in the cat. We conclude that while cortical input to the colliculus may contribute little to the classic receptive field properties of superficial-layer cells, it clearly does contribute to relative motion sensitivity.