Tectal microcircuit generating visual selection commands on gaze-controlling neurons.

ABSTRACT: The optic tectum (called superior colliculus in mammals) is critical for eye-head gaze shifts as we navigate in the terrain and need to adapt our movements to the visual scene. The neuronal mechanisms underlying the tectal contribution to stimulus selection and gaze reorientation remains, however, unclear at the microcircuit level. To analyze this complex--yet phylogenetically conserved--sensorimotor system, we developed a novel in vitro preparation in the lamprey that maintains the eye and midbrain intact and allows for whole-cell recordings from prelabeled tectal gaze-controlling cells in the deep layer, while visual stimuli are delivered. We found that receptive field activation of these cells provide monosynaptic retinal excitation followed by local GABAergic inhibition (feedforward).

SUBMITTER: Kardamakis AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4403191 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature