Takács, Flóra;
(2024)
Visual, auditory, and motor signals in the
mouse superior colliculus.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The superior colliculus (SC) contains visual, auditory, and motor maps that are thought to support sensorimotor transformations. Do mouse SC neurons contain all component signals necessary for an audiovisual localisation task? Do auditory, visual, and movement signals mix at the level of individual neurons? Is the mouse SC necessary for movements instructed by both visual and auditory stimuli? I recorded the responses of ~2,500 SC neurons in awake mice to checkerboard images and pink noise sound bursts presented at varying azimuths, alone or in combination. Of these neurons, ~1,700 were recorded in untrained mice (N=10), and the rest in mice trained in an audiovisual localisation task using the same stimuli in the task and in a passive context (N=11). In a third cohort of mice, I used optogenetics to unilaterally (N=9) and bilaterally (N=3) inactivate the SC while mice performed the task. As expected, I observed neurons responding to visual stimuli in superficial SC and to auditory stimuli in deeper layers, both in untrained and trained mice. Neurons responding to both modalities were rare (~5 %). SC neurons could predict upcoming choices in the task. Auditory stimuli evoked uninstructed movements, and in some sessions, uninstructed movements were also predictive of upcoming choice. Using linear regression, I found that visual, auditory, movement, and choice signals are in separate neurons. Unilateral inactivation of the mouse SC promoted ipsiversive movements, both during auditory and visual choices. Bilateral inactivation restored behaviour. Effects of inactivation could be explained by injecting a constant bias by inactivation to the behaviour. These results indicate that the mouse SC guides both auditory and visual sensorimotor transformations, but auditory, visual, and motor signals are in separate pools of neurons in the SC, and the SC is unlikely to resolve the audiovisual localisation task locally.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Visual, auditory, and motor signals in the mouse superior colliculus |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197648 |
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