Identifying the retinal inputs to identified circuits passing through the superior colliculus
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1
KU Leuven, NERF, Belgium
Visually guided behavior is based on the extraction of relevant features from the visual scene and the routing of this information to the correct motor centers. At the first stage of visual processing, the retina splits the visual scene into over 30 distinct features. Each feature is embodied by a different ganglion cell type that sends visual information to one or several brain targets. To determine the rules of routing we have studied two disynaptic neuronal circuits that link the mouse retina via the superior colliculus to two midbrain nuclei – the lateral posterior nucleus (pulvinar) and the parabigeminal nucleus. It has been demonstrated that each of these midbrain nuclei receives input from different sets of collicular neurons, while optogenetic activation of each projections leads to similar avoidance behavior in mice. Here we have applied a transsynaptic viral tracing strategy to specifically label the retinal ganglion cells at the beginning of each of the two pathways. By analyzing morphological properties of the labelled cells, we can identify the ganglion cell types that are part of each of the circuits. Our data shows that each brain area receives information from a limited, partially overlapping set of retinal ganglion cells. These results indicate that the circuitry of the superior colliculus act to route specific sets of visual feature to different downstream targets.
Keywords:
retinal ganglion cells (RGCs),
Superior colliculus (SC),
midbrain nuclei,
viral tracing,
neural circuits
Conference:
12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, Gent, Belgium, 22 May - 22 May, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Sensory and Motor Systems
Citation:
Li
C,
Reinhard
K,
Burke
E,
Heynderickx
S and
Farrow
K
(2019). Identifying the retinal inputs to identified circuits passing through the superior colliculus.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00088
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Received:
21 Apr 2017;
Published Online:
25 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Karl Farrow, KU Leuven, NERF, Leuven, Flanders, 3000, Belgium, karl.farrow@nerf.be