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SENSORY SYSTEMS

Moving around a visual scene

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 21, page 523 (2020)Cite this article

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When visually sampling their environment, rodents make complex 3D head motions, termed head-orienting movements (HOMs). How HOMs affect neural activity in sensory areas is poorly understood, but two studies now show that they increase neural activity in primary visual cortex (V1) driven by input from secondary motor areas (M2), and that this increase in V1 activity is dependent on ambient luminance. In the first study, Guitchounts et al. monitored HOMs and neural activity from layers 2/3 in V1 in freely moving rats continuously over 24 hours. HOMs were correlated with decreased and increased V1 firing rates in the dark and light, respectively. Notably, activity changed before the HOM occurred, suggesting these reflect a motor or predictive signal. Lesioning M2 reduced the encoding of HOM direction in V1, suggesting that M2 supplies HOM direction information to V1. In the other study, which was performed in freely moving mice, Bouvier et al. found that head movements under light conditions excited V1 whereas this excitation was decreased under dark conditions. Somatostatin-expressing neurons in superficial cortical layers were required for this light-mediated shift in activity. Overall, these findings reveal a circuit that regulates how light affects the response of V1 to head movements.

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  1. Nature Reviews Neuroscience http://www.nature.com/nrn/

    Sian Lewis

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  1. Sian Lewis
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Correspondence to Sian Lewis.

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Lewis, S. Moving around a visual scene. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 523 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0374-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0374-3

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