Benedetti F, Ferro I
Dipartimento di Anatomia e Fisiologia Umana, Università di Torino, Italy.
Neurosci Lett. 1994 Feb 28;168(1-2):45-8. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(94)90412-x.
In newborn mice, we modified the body scheme by implanting artificial whiskers (pig hair) on the ears, which are located in the superior and temporal portions of the visual field. In normal mice, multisensory neurons in the deep layers of the superior colliculus receiving somatosensory input from the ears showed visual receptive fields in the superior and temporal portions of visual space. By contrast, in the implanted mice, there was a modification of the visual receptive fields strictly related to the direction of the artificial whiskers. If these were directed toward the nose, visual receptive fields expanded in the nasal direction. If the whiskers were directed downward, visual receptive fields expanded downward. These results show that an interaction between visual and somatosensory inputs occurs in the superior colliculus during development, and that the collicular visual topography undergoes a re-mapping on the basis of the altered tactile experience.
在新生小鼠中，我们通过在耳朵上植入人造胡须（猪毛）来改变身体结构，耳朵位于视野的上部和颞部。在正常小鼠中，上丘深层接收来自耳朵体感输入的多感觉神经元在视觉空间的上部和颞部显示出视觉感受野。相比之下，在植入小鼠中，视觉感受野发生了与人工胡须方向严格相关的改变。如果这些胡须指向鼻子，视觉感受野会向鼻侧扩展。如果胡须向下指向，视觉感受野会向下扩展。这些结果表明，在发育过程中，视觉和体感输入之间的相互作用发生在上丘，并且丘系视觉地形图会根据改变的触觉体验进行重新映射。
