Short-Latency Visual Input to the Subthalamic Nucleus Is Provided by the Midbrain Superior Colliculus

Coizet, Véronique; Graham, John H; Moss, Jonathan; Bolam, J. Paul; Savasta, Marc; McHaffie, John G.; Redgrave, Peter; Overton, Paul G.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0247-09.2009

Cited by 70 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Fourteen percent of the subthalamic neurons responded in the alpha band firing activity during the early time window (0-500 ms), suggesting their connection with perceptual processing. Neuronal short-latency activity changes related to visual perception have already been found in animal STNs (72)(73)(74), and have been confirmed in humans by distortion of visual evoked potentials due to STN DBS (75). The difference in neural activity between the fixation and picture viewing periods is not necessarily evidence of visual processing, however; it also may reflect other processes, such as an engagement of selective attention, a shift from gaze fixation to scanning eye movements, or other cognitive functions intervening between vision and action, including memory involvement, target selection, Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The STN is anatomically connected to subcortical centers that contain visually responsive neurons (i.e., superior colliculus, pulvinar, amygdala, substantia innominate, and nucleus accumbens) involved in the visual encoding of emotional stimuli (73,77). Given that the visual, attentional, and emotional systems are intensively interconnected, some proportion of the affective neurons also might be expect to respond in the early time window; however, here only one of the neurons was activated during both the early and late time windows.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distinct populations of neurons respond to emotional valence and arousal in the human subthalamic nucleus

Sieger

Serranová

Růžička

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Both animal studies and studies using deep brain stimulation in humans have demonstrated the involvement of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in motivational and emotional processes; however, participation of this nucleus in processing human emotion has not been investigated directly at the single-neuron level. We analyzed the relationship between the neuronal firing from intraoperative microrecordings from the STN during affective picture presentation in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and the affective ratings of emotional valence and arousal performed subsequently. We observed that 17% of neurons responded to emotional valence and arousal of visual stimuli according to individual ratings. The activity of some neurons was related to emotional valence, whereas different neurons responded to arousal. In addition, 14% of neurons responded to visual stimuli. Our results suggest the existence of neurons involved in processing or transmission of visual and emotional information in the human STN, and provide evidence of separate processing of the affective dimensions of valence and arousal at the level of single neurons as well.emotion | basal ganglia | subthalamic nucleus | single neuron | arousal A t one time, the subthalamic nucleus (STN), which is an important target for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), was considered an important regulator of motor function (1, 2); however, the occurrence of postoperative neuropsychiatric complications has expanded interest in the nonmotor function of the STN (3, 4). Animal and human studies have already demonstrated the additional functional role of the STN in emotional and motivational processes (5-12). In addition, recent functional MRI studies found STN activation in response to emotional stimuli in healthy subjects (13,14). Therefore, we hypothesized that emotional activity-related neurons should exist in the STN. Participation of the STN in processing emotion has not yet been investigated directly at the single-neuron level in humans. Nonetheless, single-neuron activity related to a priori defined emotional categories (e.g., positive vs. negative) has been detected in a few human brain regions, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal and subcallosal cortex (15-18).It has been proposed that emotional behavior is organized along two psychophysiological dimensions: emotional valence, varying from unpleasant to pleasant, and arousal, varying from low to high (19). The individual assessment of these dimensions is closely correlated with somatic and autonomic measures of emotions (20,21). Contrary to a priori categories, they can better reflect emotional characteristics of the stimulus in an individual context, and they take into account interindividual differences based on specific behavioral determinants, such as affective disposition and personality traits (22).In this study, we aimed to detect single-neuron firing pattern changes in the STN that are related to emotional arousal and valence from the in...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct populations of neurons respond to emotional valence and arousal in the human subthalamic nucleus

Sieger

Serranová

Růžička

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Therefore, the basal ganglia may modulate a variable threshold, as proposed by Lo and Wang (2006). Within the basal ganglia loop, an excitatory projection exists from the SC to the subthalamic nucleus (STN) carrying visual information (Coizet et al 2009). Activating the STN increases inhibitory signals from the SNr basal ganglia output structure (Nambu et al 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threshold mechanism for saccade initiation in frontal eye field and superior colliculus

Jantz

Watanabe

Everling

et al. 2013

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Jantz JJ, Watanabe M, Everling S, Munoz DP. Threshold mechanism for saccade initiation in frontal eye field and superior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 109: 2767-2780, 2013. First published March 13, 2013 doi:10.1152/jn.00611.2012-In an influential model of frontal eye field (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) activity, saccade initiation occurs when the discharge rate of either single neurons or a population of neurons encoding a saccade motor plan reaches a threshold level of activity. Conflicting evidence exists for whether this threshold is fixed or can change under different conditions. We tested the fixed-threshold hypothesis at the single-neuron and population levels to help resolve the inconsistency between previous studies. Two rhesus monkeys performed a randomly interleaved pro-and antisaccade task in which they had to look either toward (pro) or 180°away (anti) from a peripheral visual stimulus. We isolated visuomotor (VM) and motor (M) neurons in the FEF and SC and tested three specific predictions of a fixed-threshold hypothesis. We found little support for fixed thresholds. First, correlations were never totally absent between presaccadic discharge rate and saccadic reaction time when examining a larger (plausible) temporal period. Second, presaccadic discharge rates varied markedly between saccade tasks. Third, visual responses exceeded presaccadic motor discharges for FEF and SC VM neurons. We calculated that only a remarkably strong bias for M neurons in downstream projections could render the fixed-threshold hypothesis plausible at the population level. Also, comparisons of gap vs. overlap conditions indicate that increased inhibitory tone may be associated with stability of thresholds. We propose that fixed thresholds are the exception rather than the rule in FEF and SC, and that stabilization of an otherwise variable threshold depends on task-related, inhibitory modulation. visuomotor neuron; motoneuron; prosaccade; antisaccade; inhibition THE FRONTAL EYE FIELD (FEF) and midbrain superior colliculus (SC) are brain regions that are critical for saccade initiation. Both structures contain neurons with retinotopically organized visual and motor response fields (RFs) Mohler et al. 1973;Wurtz and Goldberg 1971), and electrical microstimulation in either the FEF or the SC can elicit saccades of a specified direction and amplitude Robinson 1972;Stryker and Schiller 1975). Furthermore, permanent lesion of the FEF (Schiller and Chou 1998) or the SC (Schiller et al. 1980(Schiller et al. , 1987 produces lasting deficits in saccade initiation, and reversible inactivation of the FEF (Dias et al. 1995;Dias and Segraves 1999;Sommer and Tehovnik 1997) or the SC (Hanes and Wurtz 2001;Hikosaka and Wurtz 1985) transiently impairs production of saccades, revealed as increases in saccadic reaction time (SRT). Lesion of both structures together abolishes saccades (Schiller et al. 1979(Schiller et al. , 1980. After reversible deactivation of the SC, electrical microstimulation of the FEF cannot elicit saccades (Hanes a...

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“…The basal ganglia, having no direct access to spinal motoneurons, mediate their influence through relays within the so-called "premotor" neurons located in the thalamus and brainstem, and including the nucleus pedunculopontinus (PPN) and the superior colliculus (SC) [17]. The complex subcortical loops involving the basal ganglia have been studied in detail by Redgrave, McHaffie and others [18][19][20][21][22]. They confirmed that several brainstem structures, such as the PPN, SC, and various pontine and medullary reticular nuclei are closely linked to the basal ganglia through connections involving a relay in the thalamus.…”

Section: The Elaborate "Reptilian" Basal Gangliamentioning

confidence: 99%

Parkinson's disease: Acquired frailty of archaic neural networks?

Diederich

Parent

2012

Journal of the Neurological Sciences

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Short-Latency Visual Input to the Subthalamic Nucleus Is Provided by the Midbrain Superior Colliculus

Cited by 70 publications

References 44 publications

Distinct populations of neurons respond to emotional valence and arousal in the human subthalamic nucleus

Distinct populations of neurons respond to emotional valence and arousal in the human subthalamic nucleus

Threshold mechanism for saccade initiation in frontal eye field and superior colliculus

Parkinson's disease: Acquired frailty of archaic neural networks?

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