Distributed and retinotopically asymmetric processing of coherent motion in mouse visual cortex

Abstract

Perception of visual motion is important for a range of ethological behaviors in mammals. In primates, specific visual cortical regions are specialized for processing of coherent visual motion. However, whether mouse visual cortex has a similar organization remains unclear, despite powerful genetic tools available for measuring population neural activity. Here, we use widefield and 2-photon calcium imaging of transgenic mice to measure mesoscale and cellular responses to coherent motion. Imaging of primary visual cortex (V1) and higher visual areas (HVAs) during presentation of natural movies and random dot kinematograms (RDKs) reveals varied responsiveness to coherent motion, with stronger responses in dorsal stream areas compared to ventral stream areas. Moreover, there is considerable anisotropy within visual areas, such that neurons representing the lower visual field are more responsive to coherent motion. These results indicate that processing of visual motion in mouse cortex is distributed heterogeneously both across and within visual areas.

Organization of feedback projections to mouse primary visual cortex

“…Growing evidence points to functional diversity within the mouse V1 population. Binocular disparity tuning, color tuning, and coherent motion processing have recently been shown to differ along the retinotopic elevation axis of V1 ( Aihara et al., 2017 ; La Chioma et al., 2019 ; Sit and Goard, 2020 ). In a mouse performing a task in virtual reality, task related variables were also observed to be represented continuously across visual areas ( Minderer et al., 2019 ).…”

“…Retinotopy across different HVAs has been shown to be biased: with HVAs medial to V1 generally biased to representing the peripheral visual field, whereas HVAs lateral to V1 biased to the central visual field ( Garrett et al., 2014 ; Zhuang et al., 2017 ). Growing evidence points to additional functional properties being distributed topographically: including binocular disparity tuning ( La Chioma et al., 2019 ), color tuning ( Aihara et al., 2017 ), coherent motion processing ( Sit and Goard, 2020 ), and orientation tuning ( Fahey et al, 2019 ) across V1 and HVAs. How interconnections between V1 and HVAs contribute to these mesoscale topographies is not well understood.…”

Stimulus-dependent representational drift in primary visual cortex

“…Recordings were performed at 7 ± 1 day intervals for a total of 5 to 7 weeks. To ensure our selected imaging fields solely contained V1 neurons, we used a widefield microscope to determine visual area boundaries through established retinotopic mapping procedures [51][52][53] (Figure 1B, Methods). Visual landmarks such as blood vessels were used to identify and align the 2-photon imaging field on a given recording session, and small differences in the alignment of the horizontal plane were corrected in post-processing using nonrigid image registration software [9].…”

“…Recordings were performed at 7 ± 1 day intervals for a total of 5 to 7 weeks. To ensure our selected imaging fields solely contained V1 neurons, we used a widefield microscope to determine visual area boundaries through established retinotopic mapping procedures [50][51][52] (Fig. 1b, Methods).…”

Distinct recruitment of feed-forward and recurrent pathways across higher-order areas of mouse visual cortex

“…Thus, visual perception involves the coordinated evolution of specialized components of a stimulus across many areas of the brain. While many studies of hierarchical transformation have largely been conducted in primates, recent studies have demonstrated similar functional specialization in areas of mouse cortex (Andermann et al, 2011; Glickfeld and Olsen, 2017; Marshel et al, 2011; Murgas et al, 2020; Sit and Goard, 2020).…”