PUBLICATION
An Optical Illusion Pinpoints an Essential Circuit Node for Global Motion Processing
- Authors
- Wu, Y., Dal Maschio, M., Kubo, F., Baier, H.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-201002-139
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- Neuron 108(4): 722-734.e5 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Baier, Herwig, Kubo, Fumi
- Keywords
- Optogenetics, calcium imaging, direction selectivity, labeled-line circuit organization, motion aftereffect, motion processing, optokinetic response, pretectum
- MeSH Terms
-
- Afterimage/physiology*
- Animals
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Eye Movements/physiology
- Motion Perception/physiology*
- Neuroimaging/methods
- Optical Illusions/physiology*
- Optogenetics
- Photic Stimulation
- Pretectal Region/physiology*
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 32966764 Full text @ Neuron
Citation
Wu, Y., Dal Maschio, M., Kubo, F., Baier, H. (2020) An Optical Illusion Pinpoints an Essential Circuit Node for Global Motion Processing. Neuron. 108(4):722-734.e5.
Abstract
Direction-selective (DS) neurons compute the direction of motion in a visual scene. Brain-wide imaging in larval zebrafish has revealed hundreds of DS neurons scattered throughout the brain. However, the exact population that causally drives motion-dependent behaviors-e.g., compensatory eye and body movements-remains largely unknown. To identify the behaviorally relevant population of DS neurons, here we employ the motion aftereffect (MAE), which causes the well-known "waterfall illusion." Together with region-specific optogenetic manipulations and cellular-resolution functional imaging, we found that MAE-responsive neurons represent merely a fraction of the entire population of DS cells in larval zebrafish. They are spatially clustered in a nucleus in the ventral lateral pretectal area and are necessary and sufficient to steer the entire cycle of optokinetic eye movements. Thus, our illusion-based behavioral paradigm, combined with optical imaging and optogenetics, identified key circuit elements of global motion processing in the vertebrate brain.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping