Neuronal modulation in the mouse superior colliculus during covert visual selective attention

Abstract

Covert visual attention is accomplished by a cascade of mechanisms distributed across multiple brain regions. Recent studies in primates suggest a parcellation in which visual cortex is associated with enhanced representations of relevant stimuli, whereas subcortical circuits are associated with selection of visual targets and suppression of distractors. Here we identified how neuronal activity in the superior colliculus (SC) of head-fixed mice is modulated during covert visual attention. We found that spatial cues modulated both firing rate and spike-count correlations, and that the cue-related modulation in firing rate was due to enhancement of activity at the cued spatial location rather than suppression at the uncued location. This modulation improved the neuronal discriminability of visual-change-evoked activity between contralateral and ipsilateral SC neurons. Together, our findings indicate that neurons in the mouse SC contribute to covert visual selective attention by biasing processing in favor of locations expected to contain relevant information.

Neural mechanisms for the localization of externally generated tactile motion

“…Habituation of the TR occurred independently of stable tactile responses in the same neurons, providing evidence for multiple distinct circuits controlling SC activity. Similar transient responses have been observed in intermediate-layer SC neurons responding to visual stimulation 23 . However, in these cases, SC activity rapidly adapted to baseline, despite the persistence of visual stimulation.…”

Functional Organisation of the Mouse Superior Colliculus

“…We also predict that visual stimuli will elicit rapid escape only if they are in the upper visual field, but there is very little data on the influence of stimulus location on escape. Finally, emerging work has now started to explore SC’s role in stimulus discrimination tasks in mouse (e.g., Stubblefield et al, 2013 ; Hu et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Duan et al, 2021 ; Essig et al, 2021 ; Hu and Dan, 2022 ). How the behaviours we have focused on (arrest, capture, escape) contribute to these tasks is not yet clear.…”

“…Second, SC is generally thought to be important in mediating visual attention, at least in primates (e.g., Krauzlis et al, 2013 ). If attention can be similarly described in mice ( Wang and Krauzlis, 2018 ), then optic layer SC neurons involved in arrest (whose projections include the thalamus) may be important in pausing other behaviours to allow attention, and motor-related SC neurons involved in turning may be important in directing attention to particular locations within the visual field ( Wang et al, 2020 , 2021 ). Third, the proposed compartmentalisation of function may help rapid decision making ( Gold and Shadlen, 2007 ).…”

Probing visual sensitivity and attention in mice using reverse correlation

“…A small set of studies have used explicit cues to direct a mouse's attention and observe its underlying neural correlates 17,[19][20][21] . This classical design allowed them to make the spatial cue either valid or invalid and confirm that mice, like primates, experience increased stimulus detection and faster reaction times with cued attention 19 .…”

“…Our understanding of how rodents allocate attentional resources to shape behavior, however, is still limited. A set of recent studies suggest that mice can allocate voluntary (endogenous) attention in response to a cue and can switch its spatial location between visual hemifields [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] . Simultaneous behavioral measurements and neural recordings in mice 16,20,23 are beginning to identify brain regions involved in attention and resemble some findings from the classical primate literature 1 .…”