Abstract #3618

Are topographically segregated excitatory neurons in visual thalamus functionally diverse? An optogenetic fMRI study

Linshan Xie^1,2, Xunda Wang^1,2, Teng Ma^1,2,3, Pit Shan Chong⁴, Lee Wei Lim⁴, Peng Cao³, Pek-Lan Khong³, Ed X. Wu^1,2, and Alex T. L. Leong^1,2

¹Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ³Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ⁴School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Synopsis

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) plays an essential role in visual processing. There are two types of topographically segregated excitatory neurons in dLGN with different outputs to visual cortex, suggesting functional differences when processing visual inputs at the subcortical thalamic level. However, their long-range functional pathways have yet to be reported. Here, we employed optogenetics in combination with fMRI to precisely target the two subdivisions of dLGN and examine whether these two types of neurons are truly functionally diverse at the systems level to facilitate various known complex visual processing functions.

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