PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Across the animal kingdom, visual predation relies on motion-sensing neurons in the superior colliculus (SC) and its orthologs. These neurons exhibit complex stimulus preferences, including direction selectivity, which is thought to be critical for tracking the unpredictable escape routes of prey. The source of direction selectivity in the SC is contested, and its contributions to predation have not been tested experimentally. Here, we use type-specific cell removal to show that narrow-field (NF) neurons in the mouse SC guide predation. In vivo recordings demonstrate that direction-selective responses of NF cells are independent of recently reported stimulus-edge effects. Monosynaptic retrograde tracing reveals that NF cells receive synaptic input from direction-selective ganglion cells. When we eliminate direction selectivity in the retina of adult mice, direction-selective responses in the SC, including in NF cells, are lost. However, eliminating retinal direction selectivity does not affect the hunting success or strategies of mice, even when direction selectivity is removed after mice have learned to hunt, and despite abolishing the gaze-stabilizing optokinetic reflex. Thus, our results identify the retinal source of direction selectivity in the SC. They show that NF cells in the SC guide predation, an essential spatial orienting task, independent of their direction selectivity, revealing behavioral multiplexing of complex neural feature preferences and highlighting the importance of feature-selective manipulations for neuroethology.
摘要：
在整个动物王国，视觉捕食依赖于上丘（SC）及其直系同源物中的运动感神经元。这些神经元表现出复杂的刺激偏好，包括方向选择性，这被认为对于追踪不可预测的猎物逃生路线至关重要。SC中方向选择性的来源有争议，它对捕食的贡献还没有经过实验测试。这里,我们使用类型特异性细胞去除来显示小鼠SC中的窄视野（NF）神经元引导捕食。体内记录表明，NF细胞的方向选择性反应与最近报道的刺激边缘效应无关。单突触逆行示踪显示NF细胞接受方向选择性神经节细胞的突触输入。当我们消除成年小鼠视网膜中的方向选择性时，SC中的方向选择性响应，包括在NF细胞中，都迷路了。然而,消除视网膜方向选择性不影响小鼠的狩猎成功或策略，即使在老鼠学会狩猎后，方向选择性被移除，尽管消除了凝视稳定视动反射。因此，我们的结果确定了SC中方向选择性的视网膜来源.他们表明SC中的NF细胞指导捕食，一项重要的空间定位任务，独立于他们的方向选择性，揭示复杂神经特征偏好的行为复用，并强调特征选择性操作对神经行为学的重要性。
