Sep 6th, 2024 - Guy Bouvier

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Institut des Neurosciences Paris‑Saclay

The Mouse Primary Visual Cortex: Where Vision Meets Motion

Many of the sensory organs that enable us to perceive the world around us are located on our head, for example, the eyes. To accurately represent our surroundings, sensory systems in the brain must combine their primary source of sensory information, e.g. visual signals, with information about head movements in space. The vestibular organs, located in the inner ear, provide this information by transforming head motion into neural signals. Unlike other senses, however, these head motion signals are not processed by a dedicated cortical area, but are instead broadcast throughout the brain. We have previously demonstrated that neurons in primary sensory areas such as the primary visual cortex (V1) robustly respond to head movements, even in the absence of visual stimuli. However, in contrast to our thorough understanding of the pathways that convey visual signals to V1, our knowledge relative to the sources of head movement signals to V1, and both the local processing and the nature of these signals, is still very rudimentary. In this seminar, we will address these knowledge gaps by exploring how head movements affect V1 neuronal activity and investigating the potential sources and characteristics of these signals. By exploring these mechanisms, we aim to enhance our understanding of how vestibular signals are processed in a primarily visual area of the cortex. This is a crucial step towards our ultimate goal of understanding the neuronal circuits and computations underlying visual processing during self-motion, thereby providing new insights into how we sense the world.