| Abstrakt: |
Behavioral influences shape processing in the retina and the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN), though their precise effects on visual tuning remain debated. Using 2-photon imaging, we characterize the dynamics of dLGN axon activity in the primary visual cortex of awake, behaving mice, comparing visual stimulation, pupil size, stillness, locomotion, and anesthesia. Nasal visual motion triggers pupil dilation and occasionally locomotion, altering dLGN responsiveness and leading to an overrepresentation of boutons tuned to nasal motion. These effects are most potent during quiet wakefulness, weaker during locomotion, and absent under anesthesia. In the awake state, most boutons are initially tuned to nasal motion, but this is eliminated after accounting for behavioral modulations, showing preservation of retinal representations of visual motion in the visual thalamocortical pathway. These findings reveal that stimulus-driven behavioral modulations can alter visual tuning and bias cell-type classification, underscoring the importance of considering behavioral states in sensory processing experiments. |
