Thalamic activation of the visual cortex at the single-synapse level

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Yang; Kloos, Marinus; Varga, Zsuzsanna; Zhang, Yonghai; Piro, Inken; Sato, Tatsuo K.; Sakmann, Bert; Nelken, Israel; Konnerth, Arthur
• 署名单位: Technical University of Munich; Kagoshima University; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aec9923
• 发表日期: 2026-03-26
• 页码: 1349-1354
• 关键词: lateral geniculate-nucleus; orientation selectivity; simple cells; receptive-fields; in-vivo; layer 4; DENDRITIC ORGANIZATION; RELAY CELLS; neurons; input

摘要

Deciphering thalamocortical (TC) activation at the level of individual synapses is essential to understanding how the cortex processes sensory information. In this work, we studied TC computation underlying the emergence of orientation selectivity in the mammalian primary visual cortex (V1). Using two-photon glutamate imaging and optogenetic cortical silencing in vivo, we identified and characterized TC synapses onto mouse V1 layer 4 neurons. We found that TC- but not corticocortical-recipient spines lacked postsynaptic Ca2+ signals. Our results directly validate the core predictions of Hubel and Wiesel's feedforward model and reveal distinctive synaptic properties that are critical for cortical computation and plasticity.