How does the brain reject false binocular matches? Using two-photon imaging and optogenetics in mouse visual cortex, we show that PV+ and SST+ inhibitory circuits play distinct roles: both sharpen disparity tuning, but SST+ neurons selectively suppress false matches. #neuroscience #vision

Parvalbumin and somatostatin inhibitory microcircuits perform distinct roles in stereo matching

We readily perceive stereoscopic depth in correlated random dot stereograms (RDS), in which every dot presented to one eye has a matching dot in the other eye. In contrast, anti-correlated RDS, in whi...

biorxiv.org

Adding substantially more data clarified why monocular deprivation (MD) impairs depth discrimination. Surprisingly, degraded cortical maps did not reduce disparity selectivity. Instead, neurons representing central vision showed much lower trial-to-trial reliability in MD mice.

Degraded mapping of disparity tuning in visual cortex explains deficits in binocular depth perception

Sensory cortex is highly organized, but the function of this organization is contentious. We show that closing one eye during the developmental critical period in juvenile mice (monocular deprivation)...

biorxiv.org

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Using a detection task with stimuli right at threshold, whole cell recordings in NHP primary visual cortex, and choice probabilities, we demonstrate how internal fluctuations related to anticipation of a stimulus multiplicatively interact with sensory responses.

Fluctuating internal states mediate neural–behavioral covariations in V1 - Nature Neuroscience

The authors report surprising covariations between subthreshold activity of single V1 neurons and behavior, demonstrating that interactions between external sensory inputs and internal states are impl...

nature.com

Birds have a thick retina devoid of blood vessels - so how do they ensure sufficient oxygen availability? They don't - neurons rely on glycolysis, metabolizing glucose released from the pecten. Insane new study that includes comparative data on lizards and crocs.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Oxygen-free metabolism in the bird inner retina supported by the pecten - Nature

While the photoreceptor outer segments in the bird outer retina have access to oxygen, the inner retina operates under chronic anoxia, supported by anaerobic glycolysis in the retinal neurons.

nature.com

Stereoscope from the 1904 World's Fair

Come to our mini-symposium at SFN on Monday. www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...

The Richness of Vision in the Mammalian Brain: Neural Codes for Visual Perception and Behavior in Three Dimensions

Successful navigation and interactions with objects in a complex, three-dimensional (3D) world are essential to survival, yet studies of the neural basis of visual perception and action often treat th...

jneurosci.org

@packers-germany.de

Southwest Airlines: where you feel like you're flying on Spirit, but pay a lot more. Five flights in a row that have been an hour or more late. They have taken a major nose dive over the last month. @southwestairlines.bsky.social

@aaronnagler.bsky.social

Excited to share some new results that show how retinotopic mapping of disparity in mouse visual areas totally falls apart with monocular deprivation (MD). We also show how that disorganization results in depth discrimination deficits in the MD mice. #neuroscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

The lab at "our table" at Matt's El Rancho.

New article out from the lab led by graduate student Ronan O'Shea on the V1 representation of day and night vision. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Luminance invariant encoding in mouse primary visual cortex

O’Shea et al. investigates how the transition between cone- and rod-mediated vision affects neural representations in central visual areas of the mouse. Whereas the thalamus inherits luminance-depende...

cell.com

Lab holiday party sans one graduate student, one technician, and one PI on sabbatical in Paris. A full hour dedicated to discussing the arduino controlled light show outside.

Received bad news about Carl Olson. Sad to hear that he passed away. Carl was a major influence on my early years as an Assistant Prof, with our labs down the hall from each other. He was a highly rigorous neurophysiologist, with a wry sense of humor. Please see attached images for more info.

One of the most recent papers published in the lab on eye movements: www.eneuro.org/content/11/6...

Interactions between Saccades and Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Marmosets

Animals use a combination of eye movements to track moving objects. These different eye movements need to be coordinated for successful tracking, requiring interactions between the systems involved. H...

eneuro.org