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Krizan J, Song X, Fitzpatrick MJ, Shen N, Soto F, Kerschensteiner D. Predation without direction selectivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2317218121. [PMID: 38483997 PMCID: PMC10962952 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317218121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Across the animal kingdom, visual predation relies on motion-sensing neurons in the superior colliculus (SC) and its orthologs. These neurons exhibit complex stimulus preferences, including direction selectivity, which is thought to be critical for tracking the unpredictable escape routes of prey. The source of direction selectivity in the SC is contested, and its contributions to predation have not been tested experimentally. Here, we use type-specific cell removal to show that narrow-field (NF) neurons in the mouse SC guide predation. In vivo recordings demonstrate that direction-selective responses of NF cells are independent of recently reported stimulus-edge effects. Monosynaptic retrograde tracing reveals that NF cells receive synaptic input from direction-selective ganglion cells. When we eliminate direction selectivity in the retina of adult mice, direction-selective responses in the SC, including in NF cells, are lost. However, eliminating retinal direction selectivity does not affect the hunting success or strategies of mice, even when direction selectivity is removed after mice have learned to hunt, and despite abolishing the gaze-stabilizing optokinetic reflex. Thus, our results identify the retinal source of direction selectivity in the SC. They show that NF cells in the SC guide predation, an essential spatial orienting task, independent of their direction selectivity, revealing behavioral multiplexing of complex neural feature preferences and highlighting the importance of feature-selective manipulations for neuroethology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenna Krizan
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
- Graduate program in Neuroscience, Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
| | - Xiayingfang Song
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
- Graduate program in Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
| | - Michael J. Fitzpatrick
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
- Graduate program in Neuroscience, Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
| | - Ning Shen
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
| | - Florentina Soto
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
| | - Daniel Kerschensteiner
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO63110
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
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Cain SM, Bernier LP, Zhang Y, Yung AC, Kass J, Bohnet B, Yang Y, Gopaul R, Kozlowski P, MacVicar BA, Snutch TP. Hyperexcitable superior colliculus and fatal brainstem spreading depolarization in a model of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy. Brain Commun 2022; 4:fcac006. [PMID: 35474853 PMCID: PMC9035526 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiorespiratory arrest and death in mouse models of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy occur when spreading depolarization is triggered by cortical seizures and then propagates to the brainstem. However, the critical brain regions and the specific changes required to allow spreading depolarization to propagate to the brainstem under the relatively rare circumstances leading to a fatal seizure are unknown. We previously found that following cortical seizure-inducing electrical stimulation, spreading depolarization could occur in both the superior and inferior colliculi in Cacna1aS218L mice, but was never observed in wild-type animals or following non-seizure-inducing stimuli in Cacna1aS218L mice. Here, we show that optogenetic stimulation of the superior/inferior colliculi in Cacna1aS218L mice induces severe seizures, and resulting spreading depolarization in the superior/inferior colliculi that propagates to the brainstem and correlates with the respiratory arrest followed by cardiac arrest. Further, we show that neurons of the superior colliculus in Cacna1aS218L mice exhibit hyperexcitable properties that we propose underlie a distinct susceptibility to spreading depolarization. Our data suggest that the susceptibility of the superior colliculus to elicit fatal spreading depolarization is a result of either genetic or seizure-related alterations within the superior colliculus that may involve changes to structure, connectivity and/or excitability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart M Cain
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Louis-Philippe Bernier
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Yiming Zhang
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Andrew C Yung
- UBC MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Jennifer Kass
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Barry Bohnet
- UBC MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Yi Yang
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Rayshad Gopaul
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Piotr Kozlowski
- UBC MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Brian A MacVicar
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Terrance P Snutch
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.,Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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McSorley E, Cruickshank AG, McCloy R. Inhibition of saccade initiation improves saccade accuracy: The role of local and remote visual distractors in the control of saccadic eye movements. J Vis 2021; 21:17. [PMID: 33729451 PMCID: PMC7980046 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.3.17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2020] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
When a distractor appears close to the target location, saccades are less accurate. However, the presence of a further distractor, remote from those stimuli, increases the saccade response latency and improves accuracy. Explanations for this are either that the second, remote distractor impacts directly on target selection processes or that the remote distractor merely impairs the ability to initiate a saccade and changes the time at which unaffected target selection processes are accessed. In order to tease these two explanations apart, here we examine the relationship between latency and accuracy of saccades to a target and close distractor pair while a remote distractor appears at variable distance. Accuracy improvements are found to follow a similar pattern, regardless of the presence of the remote distractor, which suggests that the effect of the remote distractor is not the result of a direct impact on the target selection process. Our findings support the proposal that a remote distractor impairs the ability to initiate a saccade, meaning the competition between target and close distractor is accessed at a later time, thus resulting in more accurate saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugene McSorley
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Berkshire, UK
| | - Alice G Cruickshank
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Berkshire, UK
| | - Rachel McCloy
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Berkshire, UK
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4
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Khademi F, Chen CY, Hafed ZM. Visual feature tuning of superior colliculus neural reafferent responses after fixational microsaccades. J Neurophysiol 2020; 123:2136-2153. [PMID: 32347160 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00077.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The primate superior colliculus (SC) is causally involved in microsaccade generation. Moreover, visually responsive SC neurons across this structure's topographic map, even at peripheral eccentricities much larger than the tiny microsaccade amplitudes, exhibit significant modulations of evoked response sensitivity when stimuli appear perimicrosaccadically. However, during natural viewing, visual stimuli are normally stably present in the environment and are only shifted on the retina by eye movements. Here we investigated this scenario for the case of microsaccades, asking whether and how SC neurons respond to microsaccade-induced image jitter. We recorded neural activity from two male rhesus macaque monkeys. Within the response field (RF) of a neuron, there was a stable stimulus consisting of a grating of one of three possible spatial frequencies. The grating was stable on the display, but microsaccades periodically jittered the retinotopic RF location over it. We observed clear short-latency visual reafferent responses after microsaccades. These responses were weaker, but earlier (relative to new fixation onset after microsaccade end), than responses to sudden stimulus onsets without microsaccades. The reafferent responses clearly depended on microsaccade amplitude as well as microsaccade direction relative to grating orientation. Our results indicate that one way for microsaccades to influence vision is through modulating how the spatio-temporal landscape of SC visual neural activity represents stable stimuli in the environment. Such representation depends on the specific pattern of temporal luminance modulations expected from the relative relationship between eye movement vector (size and direction) on one hand and spatial visual pattern layout on the other.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Despite being diminutive, microsaccades still jitter retinal images. We investigated how such jitter affects superior colliculus (SC) activity. We found that SC neurons exhibit short-latency visual reafferent bursts after microsaccades. These bursts reflect not only the spatial luminance profiles of visual patterns but also how such profiles are shifted by eye movement size and direction. These results indicate that the SC continuously represents visual patterns, even as they are jittered by the smallest possible saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Khademi
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Chih-Yang Chen
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
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Chen CY, Hoffmann KP, Distler C, Hafed ZM. The Foveal Visual Representation of the Primate Superior Colliculus. Curr Biol 2019; 29:2109-2119.e7. [PMID: 31257138 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.05.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2019] [Revised: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 05/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
A defining feature of the primate visual system is its foveated nature. Processing of foveal retinal input is important not only for high-quality visual scene analysis but also for ensuring precise, albeit tiny, gaze shifts during high-acuity visual tasks. The representations of foveal retinal input in the primate lateral geniculate nucleus and early visual cortices have been characterized. However, how such representations translate into precise eye movements remains unclear. Here, we document functional and structural properties of the foveal visual representation of the midbrain superior colliculus. We show that the superior colliculus, classically associated with extra-foveal spatial representations needed for gaze shifts, is highly sensitive to visual input impinging on the fovea. The superior colliculus also represents such input in an orderly and very specific manner, and it magnifies the representation of foveal images in neural tissue as much as the primary visual cortex does. The primate superior colliculus contains a high-fidelity visual representation, with large foveal magnification, perfectly suited for active visuomotor control and perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Yang Chen
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen 72076, Germany; Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen 72076, Germany
| | - Klaus-Peter Hoffmann
- Research Department of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum 44801, Germany
| | - Claudia Distler
- Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum 44801, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen 72076, Germany; Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen 72076, Germany.
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