Mouse visual cortex contains a region of enhanced spatial resolution

Enny H. Beest, Sreedeep Mukherjee, Lisa Kirchberger, Ulf H. Schnabel, Chris Togt, Rob R. M. Teeuwen, Areg Barsegyan, Arne F. Meyer, Jasper Poort, Pieter R. Roelfsema () and Matthew W. Self
Additional contact information
Enny H. Beest: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Sreedeep Mukherjee: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Lisa Kirchberger: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Ulf H. Schnabel: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Chris Togt: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Rob R. M. Teeuwen: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Areg Barsegyan: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Arne F. Meyer: Radboud University
Jasper Poort: University of Cambridge
Pieter R. Roelfsema: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Matthew W. Self: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract The representation of space in mouse visual cortex was thought to be relatively uniform. Here we reveal, using population receptive-field (pRF) mapping techniques, that mouse visual cortex contains a region in which pRFs are considerably smaller. This region, the “focea,” represents a location in space in front of, and slightly above, the mouse. Using two-photon imaging we show that the smaller pRFs are due to lower scatter of receptive-fields at the focea and an over-representation of binocular regions of space. We show that receptive-fields of single-neurons in areas LM and AL are smaller at the focea and that mice have improved visual resolution in this region of space. Furthermore, freely moving mice make compensatory eye-movements to hold this region in front of them. Our results indicate that mice have spatial biases in their visual processing, a finding that has important implications for the use of the mouse model of vision.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24311-5

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