Abstract
Due to its genetic tractability, the mouse is fast becoming the most popular animal model for sensory neuroscience. Nevertheless, many aspects of its neural architecture are still poorly understood. Here, we image the dorsal auditory midbrain and its inputs from the cortex, revealing a hitherto hidden level of organization and paving the way for the direct observation of corticocollicular interactions. We show that a precise functional organization exists in the mouse auditory midbrain, which has been missed by previous, more macroscopic approaches. The fine-scale distribution of sound-frequency tuning suggests that the mouse midbrain is more similar to that of other mammals than previously thought and contrasts with the more heterogeneous organization reported in imaging studies of auditory cortex.
Highlights
Fine-scale analysis of the functional architecture of rodent sensory cortex has revealed a surprising lack of local organization, particu-Received Jan. 9, 2015; revised June 17, 2015; accepted June 23, 2015
In vivo two-photon calcium imaging in the inferior colliculus We injected an adeno-associated virus carrying the calcium indicator GCaMP6m into the IC of 14 mice (Fig. 1)
Distinguishing between the central nucleus and dorsal cortex of the inferior colliculus To study the functional organization of the dorsal mouse IC, we calculated the Best frequency (BF), the frequency which evoked the strongest average response across all sound levels, for each of the 1948 neurons and plotted its anatomical location color-coded according to its frequency preference
Summary
Fine-scale analysis of the functional architecture of rodent sensory cortex has revealed a surprising lack of local organization, particu-Received Jan. 9, 2015; revised June 17, 2015; accepted June 23, 2015.
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