Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2012 Jun;15(6):905-12. doi: 10.1038/nn.3106.
The primary visual cortex (V1) receives its driving input from the eyes via the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus. The lateral pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus also projects to V1, but this input is not well understood. We manipulated lateral pulvinar neural activity in prosimian primates and assessed the effect on supra-granular layers of V1 that project to higher visual cortex. Reversibly inactivating lateral pulvinar prevented supra-granular V1 neurons from responding to visual stimulation. Reversible, focal excitation of lateral pulvinar receptive fields increased the visual responses in coincident V1 receptive fields fourfold and shifted partially overlapping V1 receptive fields toward the center of excitation. V1 responses to regions surrounding the excited lateral pulvinar receptive fields were suppressed. LGN responses were unaffected by these lateral pulvinar manipulations. Excitation of lateral pulvinar after LGN lesion activated supra-granular layer V1 neurons. Thus, lateral pulvinar is able to powerfully control and gate information outflow from V1.
初级视皮层（V1）通过丘脑的外侧膝状体核（LGN）接收来自眼睛的驱动输入。丘脑的外侧丘系核也投射到 V1，但这个输入还不太清楚。我们在灵长类动物中操纵外侧丘系核的神经活动，并评估其对投射到更高视觉皮层的 V1 超颗粒层的影响。可逆性地使外侧丘系核失活会阻止超颗粒层 V1 神经元对视觉刺激做出反应。可逆的、局部的外侧丘系核感受野的兴奋将 V1 感受野中的视觉反应增加了四倍，并将部分重叠的 V1 感受野向兴奋中心移动。兴奋的外侧丘系核感受野周围的 V1 反应受到抑制。LGN 的反应不受这些外侧丘系核操作的影响。外侧丘系核在 LGN 损伤后的兴奋激活了超颗粒层 V1 神经元。因此，外侧丘系核能够强有力地控制和调节 V1 的信息输出。
