Work

Visual Function, Organization, and Development of the Mouse Superior Colliculus

Year: 2018

Type: review

Abstract: The superior colliculus (SC) is the most prominent visual center in mice. Studies over the past decade have greatly advanced our understanding of the function, organization, and development of the mouse SC, which has rapidly become a popular model in vision research. These studies have described the diverse and cell-type-specific visual response properties in the mouse SC, revealed their laminar and topographic organizations, and linked the mouse SC and downstream pathways with visually guided behaviors. Here, we summarize these findings, compare them with the rich literature of SC studies in other species, and highlight important gaps and exciting future directions. Given its clear importance in mouse vision and the available modern neuroscience tools, the mouse SC holds great promise for understanding the cellular, circuit, and developmental mechanisms that underlie visual processing, sensorimotor transformation, and, ultimately, behavior.

Source: Annual Review of Vision Science

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034142

Authors: Jianhua Cang, Elise Savier, Jad Barchini, Xiaorong Liu

Institutions: University of Virginia, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

Language: English

Topic: Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute

Awards: Topographic Maps and Visual Cortical Functions, Eye Movement Maps in Superior Colliculus, Cell Type Specific Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus, Neural Mechanisms of Stereoscopic Vision