Visual Map Shifts based on Whisker-Guided Cues in the Young Mouse Visual Cortex

• Published in: Cell reports (Cambridge) Vol. 5; no. 5; pp. 1365 - 1374
• Main Authors: Yoshitake, Kohei, Tsukano, Hiroaki, Tohmi, Manavu, Komagata, Seiji, Hishida, Ryuichi, Yagi, Takeshi, Shibuki, Katsuei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.12.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Cortical Spreading Depression; Cues; Evoked Potentials, Visual; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Photic Stimulation; Vibrissae - innervation; Vibrissae - physiology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual Fields
• ISSN: 2211-1247; 2211-1247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2013.11.006

Mice navigate nearby space using their vision and whiskers, and young mice learn to integrate these heterogeneous inputs in perceptual space. We found that cortical responses were depressed in the primary visual cortex of young mice after wearing a monocular prism. This depression was uniformly observed in the primary visual cortex and was eliminated by whisker trimming or lesions in the posterior parietal cortex. Compensatory visual map shifts of responses elicited via the eye that had worn the prism were also observed. As a result, cortical responses elicited via each eye were clearly separated when a visual stimulus was placed in front of the mice. A comparison of response areas before and after prism wearing indicated that the map shifts were produced by depression with spatial eccentricity. Visual map shifts based on whisker-guided cues may serve as a model for investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying higher sensory integration in the mammalian brain. [Display omitted] •Cortical depression was induced in visual cortex of young mice after prism wearing•Depression was abolished by whisker trimming or higher cortical lesion•Skewed depression produced map shifts that partly compensated for the prism shift•Ocular dominance column-like structures were formed in mice after prism wearing Young mice must learn to integrate heterogeneous inputs obtained from their whiskers and eyes for spatial navigation. In this study, Shibuki and colleagues show that retinotopic maps in the visual cortex of young mice are shifted on the basis of whisker information. The map shifts were produced by partial depression of visual responses in mice with intact posterior parietal cortex. These whisker-guided visual map shifts may serve as a model for investigating cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying higher sensory integration.