Head Movements Control the Activity of Primary Visual Cortex in a Luminance Dependent Manner

Abstract

The vestibular system broadcasts head-movement related signals to sensory areas throughout the brain, including visual cortex. These signals are crucial for the brain's ability to assess whether motion of the visual scene results from the animal's headmovements. How head-movements impact visual cortical circuits remains, however, poorly understood. Here, we discover that ambient luminance profoundly transforms how mouse primary visual cortex (V1) processes head-movements. While in darkness, head movements result in an overall suppression of neuronal activity, in ambient light the same head movements trigger excitation across all cortical layers. This light-dependent switch in how V1 processes head-movements is controlled by somatostatin expressing (SOM) inhibitory neurons, which are excited by head movements in dark but not in light. This study thus reveals a light-dependent switch in the response of V1 to head-movements and identifies a circuit in which SOM cells are key integrators of vestibular and luminance signals.

On the Rotations of the Cranial Spheres

“…That head movements in the light cause superficial-layer neurons' activation, as if released from inhibition, hinted at the possibility that deep-layer somatostatin cells were playing a critical role. To directly test this notion, Bouvier et al (2020) lesioned these somatostatin cells and found that head movements in the dark were no longer as suppressive. Bouvier et al (2020) demonstrate that not only does mouse V1 receive vestibular input, but the contextual integration of these vestibular inputs also emerges from within V1.…”

“…Fortunately, the brain can disambiguate these different sources of motion by evaluating the purely visual input in the context of signals about the eye and the head movement. Two studies in this issue of Neuron reveal the detailed circuitry that supports this disambiguation (Bouvier et al, 2020;Guitchounts et al, 2020).…”

“…We integrate information from multiple sensory modalities and from ongoing plans to construct a perception of the world. In this issue of Neuron, Bouvier et al (2020) and Guitchounts et al (2020) examine the detailed circuitry that supports a flexible integration of head and visual signals in rodent primary visual cortex.…”

“…How do these contextual effects of luminance emerge? Bouvier et al (2020) used optogenetic tools to selectively manipulate different interneuron classes. They find that the vestibular-and luminance-related signals have opposite effects on the regular spiking cells in superficial layers and the deep-layer somatostatin interneurons.…”

Toward a head movement‐based system for multilayer digital content exploration

“…Recent scientific findings from the neuroscience community 6 reveal that the vestibular system in mammals broadcasts head pose signals to areas throughout the brain and up to the visual cortex to be processed. This indicates the significance of head pose in visual attention analysis.…”