Retinal Inputs to the Thalamus Are Selectively Gated by Arousal.

ABSTRACT: The brain can flexibly filter out sensory information in a manner that depends on behavioral state. In the visual thalamus and cortex, arousal and locomotion are associated with changes in the magnitude of responses to visual stimuli. Here, we asked whether such modulation of visual responses might already occur at an earlier stage in this visual pathway. We measured neural activity of retinal axons using wide-field and two-photon calcium imaging in awake mouse thalamus across arousal states associated with different pupil sizes. Surprisingly, visual responses to drifting gratings in retinal axonal boutons were robustly modulated by arousal level in a manner that varied across stimulus dimensions and across functionally distinct subsets of boutons. At low and intermediate spatial frequenci

SUBMITTER: Liang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7665906 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature