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Optogenetic manipulation of a value-coding pathway from the primate caudate tail facilitates saccadic gaze shift
Hidetoshi Amita1,2, Hyoung F Kim3, Ken-Ichi Inoue4,5
1Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. amita.hidetoshi@gmail.com.
Nature Communications
|April 22, 2020
Summary
The caudate tail (CDt) in the basal ganglia helps guide eye movements toward visually appealing objects. This study reveals how CDt signals value through inhibitory pathways to control saccadic eye movements.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Primate behavior
- Oculomotor control
Background:
- The primate caudate tail (CDt) encodes stable values of visual objects.
- CDt stimulation evokes saccadic eye movements, but the output pathway remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To elucidate how CDt conveys stable value signals to modulate saccadic eye movements.
- To investigate the neural pathways involved in value-guided saccades.
Main Methods:
- Pathway-selective optogenetic manipulation using channelrhodopsin-2 expressed in CDt.
- Viral vector injections for targeted gene expression.
- Optical activation of CDt-derived terminals in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr).
Main Results:
- Optical activation of CDt terminals inhibited SNr neurons, which normally respond to good objects.
- Stimulation induced prolonged excitation of visual-saccadic neurons in the superior colliculus (SC).
- SC neurons showed stronger responses to good objects and induced contralateral saccades.
Conclusions:
- The CDt facilitates saccades toward good objects via serial inhibitory pathways involving the SNr.
- This mechanism demonstrates how value information is translated into behavioral output for eye movements.
