By tracing retinal projections to the brain and simultaneously labeling connections innervating Cluster N, we found colocalization of the tracers in specific substructures of
the visual thalamus.
By combining neuronal tracing with behavioral experiments leading to sensory - driven gene expression of the neuronal activity marker ZENK during magnetic compass orientation, we demonstrate a functional neuronal connection between the retinal neurons and Cluster N via
the visual thalamus.
Between the eye and the visual cortex, the signals must pass through
the visual thalamus, that is, through thalamocortical, or TC neurons.
In your brain, the information flow looks something like this: Your eyes and ears transmit basic sensory information to the auditory and
visual thalamus, where the information is then transmitted along two paths.
The primary visual cortex is the area of the cerebral cortex with the most detailed representation of visual space and the main recipient of eye inputs coming through
the visual thalamus.
Not exact matches
The
Thalamus not only relays
visual signals from the eye to the
visual cortex as previously thought, but also conveys additional, contextual information.
Information about these images is sent from the eyes to a brain region called the
thalamus, and from there on to the
visual cortex.
The research team led by Prof. Sonja Hofer at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has discovered in mice that a special part of the
thalamus — called the Pulvinar — supplies the
visual cortex with additional, non-
visual information.
In contrast, the
thalamus has until now been considered mostly as a relay for
visual information.
Visual pathways to
thalamus and tectum do not participate in this response.
The
visual information then flowed via the
thalamus to the
visual cortex and the amygdala, the key brain center for evaluating threat.
Sure enough, the two dyes oozed along different sets of neurons and met in the
thalamus, a relay station for
visual information deep in the brain.
Specifically, they have found evidence of processing in the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), a small node in the
thalamus in the middle of the brain that relays nerve impulses from the retina to the primary
visual cortex.
Impulses from the retinas, for instance, have to travel up the optic nerve to the
thalamus, which relays the signals to the
visual cortex in the back of the brain.
We could demonstrate that the projections from the
thalamus upon the
visual wulst in the garden warbler are organized in a topographic fashion as it was also shown in pigeons [20] and chicks [21].
He studied functional circuit processing throughout the
visual system, including
thalamus, primary
visual cortex and extrastriate
visual areas using in vivo two - photon imaging, calcium sensors and viral tracers.