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A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity
Published on: May 7, 2017
Influence of the thalamus on spatial visual processing in frontal cortex.
Marc A Sommer1, Robert H Wurtz
1Department of Neuroscience, the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA. sommer@bns.pitt.edu
The brain uses corollary discharge, an internal copy of motor commands, to maintain visual stability during eye movements. This study reveals a thalamocortical pathway linking corollary discharge to frontal cortex visual processing.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory processing
- Motor control
Background:
- The brain must distinguish self-generated sensory input from external stimuli.
- Corollary discharge (an internal copy of motor commands) is hypothesized to help process self-movement.
- This mechanism could explain visual stability despite saccadic eye movements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish the link between corollary discharge and visual processing.
- To identify the neural circuit mediating visual stability during saccades.
- To investigate the role of thalamic corollary discharge in frontal cortex visual processing.
Main Methods:
- Electrophysiological recordings in the frontal eye field of the cortex.
- Perturbation of corollary discharge pathways from the thalamus.
- Analysis of neuronal receptive field shifts before saccadic eye movements.
Main Results:
- A corollary discharge pathway from the thalamus (mediodorsal nucleus) to the frontal eye field was identified.
- Thalamic corollary discharge was shown to drive spatial shifts in the visual receptive fields of frontal cortex neurons before saccades.
- Interruption of this pathway impaired neuronal visual processing, demonstrating functional dependence.
Conclusions:
- The first direct link between corollary discharge and visual processing is established.
- A neural circuit involving thalamocortical projections for visual stability during saccades is delineated.
- This provides a framework for understanding corollary discharge in other sensory systems.
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