Florencia Garrido-Charad, Tomas Vega-Zuniga, Cristián Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, Pedro Fernandez, Luciana López-Jury, Cristian González-Cabrera, Harvey J Karten, Harald Luksch, Gonzalo J Marín
The optic tectum (TeO), or superior colliculus, is a multisensory midbrain center that organizes spatially orienting responses to relevant stimuli. To define the stimulus with the highest priority at each moment, a network of reciprocal connections between the TeO and the isthmi promotes competition between concurrent tectal inputs. In the avian midbrain, the neurons mediating enhancement and suppression of tectal inputs are located in separate isthmic nuclei, facilitating the analysis of the neural processes that mediate competition...
August 7, 2018: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America