Dataset Information

A non-canonical retina-ipRGCs-SCN-PVT visual pathway for mediating contagious itch behavior.

ABSTRACT: Contagious itch behavior informs conspecifics of adverse environment and is crucial for the survival of social animals. Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and its receptor (GRPR) in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus mediates contagious itch behavior in mice. Here, we show that intrinsically photosensitive retina ganglion cells (ipRGCs) convey visual itch information, independently of melanopsin, from the retina to GRP neurons via PACAP-PAC1R signaling. Moreover, GRPR neurons relay itch information to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT). Surprisingly, neither the visual cortex nor superior colliculus is involved in contagious itch. In vivo calcium imaging and extracellular recordings reveal contagious itch-specific neural dynamics of GRPR neurons. Thus, we propose that the retina-ipRGC-SCN-PVT pathway constitutes a previously unknown visual pathway that probably evolved for motion vision that encodes salient environmental cues and enables animals to imitate behaviors of conspecifics as an anticipatory mechanism to cope with adverse conditions.

SUBMITTER: Gao F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9595067 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A non-canonical retina-ipRGCs-SCN-PVT visual pathway for mediating contagious itch behavior.

Gao Fang F Ma Jun J Yu Yao-Qing YQ Gao Xiao-Fei XF Bai Yang Y Sun Yi Y Liu Juan J Liu Xianyu X Barry Devin M DM Wilhelm Steven S Piccinni-Ash Tyler T Wang Na N Liu Dongyang D Ross Rachel A RA Hao Yan Y Huang Xu X Jia Jin-Jing JJ Yang Qianyi Q Zheng Hao H van Nispen Johan J Chen Jun J Li Hui H Zhang Jiayi J Li Yun-Qing YQ Chen Zhou-Feng ZF

Cell reports 20221001 1

Contagious itch behavior informs conspecifics of adverse environment and is crucial for the survival of social animals. Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and its receptor (GRPR) in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus mediates contagious itch behavior in mice. Here, we show that intrinsically photosensitive retina ganglion cells (ipRGCs) convey visual itch information, independently of melanopsin, from the retina to GRP neurons via PACAP-PAC1R signaling. Moreover, GRPR neurons rel ...[more]

PMID: 36198265

Similar Datasets

Project description:Visual performance varies around the visual field. It is best near the fovea compared to the periphery, and at iso-eccentric locations it is best on the horizontal, intermediate on the lower, and poorest on the upper meridian. The fovea-to-periphery performance decline is linked to the decreases in cone density, retinal ganglion cell (RGC) density, and V1 cortical magnification factor (CMF) as eccentricity increases. The origins of polar angle asymmetries are not well understood. Optical quality and cone density vary across the retina, but recent computational modeling has shown that these factors can only account for a small percentage of behavior. Here, we investigate how visual processing beyond the cone photon absorptions contributes to polar angle asymmetries in performance. First, we quantify the extent of asymmetries in cone density, midget RGC density, and V1 CMF. We find that both polar angle asymmetries and eccentricity gradients increase from cones to mRGCs, and from mRGCs to cortex. Second, we extend our previously published computational observer model to quantify the contribution of phototransduction by the cones and spatial filtering by mRGCs to behavioral asymmetries. Starting with photons emitted by a visual display, the model simulates the effect of human optics, cone isomerizations, phototransduction, and mRGC spatial filtering. The model performs a forced choice orientation discrimination task on mRGC responses using a linear support vector machine classifier. The model shows that asymmetries in a decision maker's performance across polar angle are greater when assessing the photocurrents than when assessing isomerizations and are greater still when assessing mRGC signals. Nonetheless, the polar angle asymmetries of the mRGC outputs are still considerably smaller than those observed from human performance. We conclude that cone isomerizations, phototransduction, and the spatial filtering properties of mRGCs contribute to polar angle performance differences, but that a full account of these differences will entail additional contribution from cortical representations.

Dataset Information

A non-canonical retina-ipRGCs-SCN-PVT visual pathway for mediating contagious itch behavior.

Publications

A non-canonical retina-ipRGCs-SCN-PVT visual pathway for mediating contagious itch behavior.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets