Superior colliculus drives stimulus-evoked directionally biased saccades and attempted head movements in head-fixed mice

Animals investigate their environments by directing their gaze towards salient stimuli. In the prevailing view, mouse gaze shifts entail head rotations followed by brainstem-mediated eye movements, including saccades to reset the eyes. These 'recentering' saccades are attributed to head mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2021-12, Vol.10
Main Authors: Zahler, Sebastian H, Taylor, David E, Wong, Joey Y, Adams, Julia M, Feinberg, Evan H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Brain stem
Eye movements
gaze shifts
Head
Head Movements - physiology
Mice
Neuroscience
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
saccades
Saccades (Eye movements)
Saccades - physiology
Saccadic eye movements
Strain gauges
Superior Colliculi - physiology
Superior colliculus
Tactile stimuli
Topography
Vestibular system
vision
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Summary:Animals investigate their environments by directing their gaze towards salient stimuli. In the prevailing view, mouse gaze shifts entail head rotations followed by brainstem-mediated eye movements, including saccades to reset the eyes. These 'recentering' saccades are attributed to head movement-related vestibular cues. However, microstimulating mouse superior colliculus (SC) elicits directed head and eye movements resembling SC-dependent sensory-guided gaze shifts in other species, suggesting that mouse gaze shifts may be more flexible than has been recognized. We investigated this possibility by tracking eye and attempted head movements in a head-fixed preparation that eliminates head movement-related sensory cues. We found tactile stimuli evoke directionally biased saccades coincident with attempted head rotations. Differences in saccade endpoints across stimuli are associated with distinct stimulus-dependent relationships between initial eye position and saccade direction and amplitude. Optogenetic perturbations revealed SC drives these gaze shifts. Thus, head-fixed mice make sensory-guided, SC-dependent gaze shifts involving coincident, directionally biased saccades and attempted head movements. Our findings uncover flexibility in mouse gaze shifts and provide a foundation for studying head-eye coupling.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.73081