Visual responses of neurons in the nucleus of the basal optic root to stationary stimuli in pigeons

Gu, Yong; Wang, Yuan; Wang, Shurong

doi:10.1002/jnr.10154

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, the transient/sustained ratios at the onset of motion in the preferred direction were larger in the accelerationsensitive neurons, and the value of the transient/sustained ratio was related to the amount of acceleration responsiveness, indicating that part of the transient is related to the presence of response to stimulus acceleration. Previous studies have shown that many directional cells produce transient responses to the onset of motion (Ibbotson et al, 1998;Lisberger and Movshon, 1999;Wylie and Crowder, 2000;Priebe and Lisberger, 2002) and to the appearance of a stationary pattern (Müller et al, 2001;Gu et al, 2002). The onset transients in these cases could convey information about stimulus motion or edge detection (Awatramani and Slaughter, 2000) and may originate from the retinal bipolar cells and/or some synaptic mechanisms (Awatramani and Slaughter, 2000;Müller et al, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Neurons in the Pigeon Brain Encode the Acceleration of Stimulus Motion

Cao¹,

Gu²,

Wang³

2004

J. Neurosci.

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Seeing target motion is a vital capability of the visual system in humans and animals. Physically, motion is described by its acceleration, speed, and direction. Motion-sensitive neurons in all the visual areas examined to date are selective for the direction and speed of motion. Here, we show by single-unit recording that one-third of motion-sensitive neurons in the pigeon's pretectal nucleus also encode the acceleration of stimulus motion. These neurons are characterized by plateau-shaped speed-tuning curves in which the firing rate is the same over a wide range of speeds, a feature that allows these neurons to encode unambiguously the rate of change of speed over time. Acceleration-sensitive neurons also show transient responses to the offset of motion in the preferred and/or nonpreferred directions; acceleration-insensitive neurons do not. We observed the same sensitivity to target acceleration for brief ramps of stimulus speed and for sinusoidal modulation of speed. The locations of acceleration-sensitive and -insensitive neurons are segregated in the pretectal nucleus. The visual responses of pretectal neurons indicate that the visual and vestibular systems share not only a spatial but also a temporal reference frame that can detect the acceleration produced by self-motion of an organism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Neurons in the Pigeon Brain Encode the Acceleration of Stimulus Motion

Cao¹,

Gu²,

Wang³

2004

J. Neurosci.

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“…The right eye was held open and the left eye was covered. During single-unit recordings in the anaesthetized pigeons, the eye movements were intermittently monitored by the experimenter and no observable eye movements were found (Gu et al 2002). A screen of 130 deg × 140 deg was placed tangential to and 40 cm away from the viewing eye.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response characteristics of the pigeon's pretectal neurons to illusory contours and motion

Niu¹,

Xiao²,

Liu³

et al. 2006

The Journal of Physiology

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Misinterpretations of visual information received by the retina are called visual illusions, which are known to occur in higher brain areas. However, whether they would be also processed in lower brain structures remains unknown, and how to explain the neuronal mechanisms underlying the motion after-effect is intensely debated. We show by extracellular recording that all motion-sensitive neurons in the pigeon's pretectum respond similarly to real and illusory contours, and their preferred directions are identical for both contours in unidirectional cells, whereas these directions are changed by 90 deg for real versus illusory contours in bidirectional cells. On the other hand, some pretectal neurons produce inhibitory (excitatory) after-responses to cessation of prolonged motion in the preferred (null) directions, whose time course is similar to that of the motion after-effect reported by humans. Because excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields of a pretectal cell overlap in visual space and possess opposite directionalities, after-responses to cessation of prolonged motion in one direction may create illusory motion in the opposite direction. It appears that illusory contours and motion could be detected at the earliest stage of central information processing and processed in bottom-up streams, and that the motion after-effect may result from functional interactions of excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields with opposite directionalities.

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“…found that the nBOR-LM projection is inhibitory, as electrical stimulation of nBOR resulted in a decrease in the activity of LM neurons. By recording from LM after pharmacological inactivation of nBOR, both Gu et al~2002! andCrowder et al~2003b!…”

Section: Functions Of the Small Nbor Neuronsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projections of the nucleus of the basal optic root in pigeons (Columba livia): A comparison of the morphology and distribution of neurons with different efferent projections

Wylie

Pakan²,

Elliott

et al. 2007

Vis Neurosci

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The avian nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) is a visual structure involved in the optokinetic response. nBOR consists of several morphologically distinct cell types, and in the present study, we sought to determine if these different cell types had differential projections. Using retrograde tracers, we examined the morphology and distribution of nBOR neurons projecting to the vestibulocerebellum (VbC), inferior olive (IO), dorsal thalamus, the pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (LM), the contralateral nBOR, the oculomotor complex (OMC) and a group of structures along the midline of the mesencephalon. The retrogradely labeled neurons fell into two broad categories: large neurons, most of which were multipolar rather than fusiform and small neurons, which were either fusiform or multipolar. From injections into the IO, LM, contralateral nBOR, and structures along the midline-mesencephalon small nBOR neurons were labeled. Although there were no differences with respect to the size of the labeled neurons from these injections, there were some differences with the respect to the distribution of labeled neurons and the proportion of multipolar vs. fusiform neurons. From injections into the VbC, the large multipolar cells were labeled throughout nBOR. The only other cases in which these large neurons were labeled were contralateral OMC injections. To investigate if single neurons project to multiple targets we used paired injections of red and green fluorescent retrograde tracers into different targets. Double-labeled neurons were never observed indicating that nBOR neurons do not project to multiple targets. We conclude that individual nBOR neurons have unique projections, which may have differential roles in processing optic flow and controlling the optokinetic response.

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Visual responses of neurons in the nucleus of the basal optic root to stationary stimuli in pigeons

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

Visual Neurons in the Pigeon Brain Encode the Acceleration of Stimulus Motion

Visual Neurons in the Pigeon Brain Encode the Acceleration of Stimulus Motion

Response characteristics of the pigeon's pretectal neurons to illusory contours and motion

Projections of the nucleus of the basal optic root in pigeons (Columba livia): A comparison of the morphology and distribution of neurons with different efferent projections

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