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Article
| Open AccessMemory-guided microsaccades
Microsaccades are small-amplitude, fixational eye movements that are largely thought to be involuntary. Here, the authors demonstrate that monkeys (and humans) can be easily trained to respond to a remembered target location with a volitional microsaccade, and that a population of superior colliculus neurons is selectively associated with them.
- Konstantin F. Willeke
- , Xiaoguang Tian
- & Ziad M. Hafed
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Article
| Open AccessSpatial frequency sensitivity in macaque midbrain
In primates, the superior colliculus (SC) contributes to rapid visual exploration with saccades. Here the authors show that the superior colliculus preferentially represents low spatial frequencies, which are the most prevalent in natural scenes.
- Chih-Yang Chen
- , Lukas Sonnenberg
- & Ziad M. Hafed
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Article
| Open AccessSuperior colliculus neurons encode a visual saliency map during free viewing of natural dynamic video
Saliency maps have been proposed to guide visual attention, yet the underlying neural correlates remain undetermined. Here, the authors record from monkeys as they watch videos of natural scenes, and find superior colliculus superficial visual-layer neurons exhibit activity patterns consistent with a visual saliency map.
- Brian J. White
- , David J. Berg
- & Douglas P. Munoz
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Article
| Open AccessSpatially precise visual gain control mediated by a cholinergic circuit in the midbrain attention network
Attention and gaze impact the spatial responsiveness of neurons in the optic tectum. Here the authors elucidate the mechanism by which cholinergic inputs affect receptive field properties of tectal neurons in a spatially precise manner in barn owls.
- Ali Asadollahi
- & Eric I. Knudsen
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Article |
Multisensory training reverses midbrain lesion-induced changes and ameliorates haemianopia
Failure to attend to visual cues is a common consequence of visual cortical injury. Here, the authors demonstrate that auditory–visual cross-modal behavioural training leads to neural plasticity and reinstatement of visuomotor competency in animals rendered unilaterally blind by visual cortical removal.
- Huai Jiang
- , Barry E. Stein
- & John G. McHaffie
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Article
| Open AccessProcessing of visually evoked innate fear by a non-canonical thalamic pathway
The ability of animals to respond to life-threatening stimuli is critical for survival, yet the neural circuits mediating innate defensive behaviors are not well understood. Here, the authors reveal a novel collicular–thalamic–amygdala circuit critical for innate defensive responses to visual threats.
- Pengfei Wei
- , Nan Liu
- & Liping Wang
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Article
| Open AccessPreference for concentric orientations in the mouse superior colliculus
The mammalian superior colliculus (SC) processes visual stimuli but little is known about the spatial organization of the response preferences for specific visual features. Here the authors show that the mouse SC contains a map for orientation preference such that preferred grating orientation is aligned to concentric circles around the centre of the visual field.
- Mehran Ahmadlou
- & J Alexander Heimel