Authors: Hiroshi Ohno Hiroyuki Uchiyama
Publish Date: 2009/01/28
Volume: 194, Issue: 3, Pages: 339-346
Abstract
Changes in the internal state of the brain may modulate retinal function In birds most neurons in the isthmooptic IO nucleus project their axons topographically into the contralateral retina and activity in IO neurons enhances visual responses of retinal ganglion cells in the target retinal region To elucidate the significance of this pathway we recorded spikes of IO neurons in four awake Japanese quail using an implanted electrode assembly while recording unrestrained head movements The IO neurons fired passively in response to visual stimuli in receptive fields and nonvisually without visual stimuli or eye–head movements Nonvisually evoked activity was observed in the middle of eye–head fixation as well as at about 200 ms before the onset of head saccades Intensity of activity before onset of head saccades depended on the direction of motion of subsequent head saccades Local retinal output may be enhanced by centrifugal signals before gaze shiftsWe wish to thank Drs William K Stell Frederick A Miles Robert B Barlow and Masakazu Konishi for valuable comments on the manuscript Dr Stell also kindly edited the manuscript for English usage This work was partly supported by KAKENHI 20300095 and funding from Kagoshima University
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