Abstract
The mouse has become an important model for understanding the neural basis of visual perception. Although it has long been known that mouse lens transmits ultraviolet (UV) light and mouse opsins have absorption in the UV band, little is known about how UV visual information is processed in the mouse brain. Using a custom UV stimulation system and in vivo calcium imaging, we characterized the feature selectivity of layer 2/3 neurons in mouse primary visual cortex (V1). In adult mice, a comparable percentage of the neuronal population responds to UV and visible stimuli, with similar pattern selectivity and receptive field properties. In young mice, the orientation selectivity for UV stimuli increased steadily during development, but not direction selectivity. Our results suggest that, by expanding the spectral window through which the mouse can acquire visual information, UV sensitivity provides an important component for mouse vision.
Highlights
UV vision is widespread in nature[1,2] and used for a variety of essential tasks, such as navigation[3], communication[4], mate-selection[5], and foraging[6]
Using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging[37], we found that UV-evoked cortical responses were orientation-selective and exhibited similar spatiotemporal properties to those evoked by visible light
UV response can be mediated by S-opsin through its peak absorption band as well as M-opsin and rhodopsin through their substantial β -band absorption in the UV range (Fig. 1b)[9]
Summary
UV vision is widespread in nature[1,2] and used for a variety of essential tasks, such as navigation[3], communication[4], mate-selection[5], and foraging[6]. Another common feature of the mammalian retina[26], spatially differential opsin expression, is found in mice[21,22,23,27,28,29,30,31]: Within mouse retina, the expression level of S-opsin and M-opsin follows a dorsal-ventral gradient, with M-opsin dominant in the dorsal retina and S-opsin dominant in the ventral retina Such a segregation of S- and M-opsin expression can support color opponency in retinal ganglion cells without requiring cone-type selective connectivity[32,33,34]. We studied developmental trajectory of mouse UV vision and found that the percentage of orientation-selective neurons increased steadily during development
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