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Passive eye displacement alters auditory spatial receptive fields of cat superior colliculus neurons

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 1167–1169 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

The superior colliculus (SC) is thought to use a set of superimposed, topographically organized neural maps of visual, auditory, somatosensory and motor space to direct the eyes toward novel stimuli1,2. Auditory spatial response fields (SRFs) of SC neurons may change when an animal moves its eyes, presumably to compensate for the resulting misalignment of visual and auditory sensory spatial reference frames3,4,5,6, but the mechanisms responsible for these SRF changes remain unknown. Here we report that passive deviation of the eye in anesthetized, paralyzed animals can profoundly affect the auditory responsiveness of SC neurons, but seems insufficient by itself to provide adaptive shifts of auditory SRFs.

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Figure 1: Contraction of SRF resulting from passive eye displacement.
Figure 2: Expansion of spatial response field (SRF) resulting from passive eye displacement obtained at three sound intensities above the neuron's acoustic threshold.
Figure 3: Population results.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by NIH grants DC00116 and HD03352 and a Defeating Deafness/Dunhill Research Fellowship to J.W.H.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Waisman Center, 627 Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53705, Wisconsin

    J. Curtis Zella, John F. Brugge & Jan W. H. Schnupp

  2. Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford University, Parks Road, OX1 3PT

    Jan W. H. Schnupp

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  1. J. Curtis Zella
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  2. John F. Brugge
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  3. Jan W. H. Schnupp
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Correspondence to Jan W. H. Schnupp.

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Zella, J., Brugge, J. & Schnupp, J. Passive eye displacement alters auditory spatial receptive fields of cat superior colliculus neurons. Nat Neurosci 4, 1167–1169 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn773

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