Article

Identification of the visual landmark pathway in the mammalian brain

Details

Citation

Dudchenko PA (2024) Identification of the visual landmark pathway in the mammalian brain. The Journal of Physiology, 602 (20), pp. 5133-5134. https://doi.org/10.1113/jp287506

Abstract
A central question in neuroscience is how the mammalian brain processes information from the outside world. In primates, visual information is conveyed to the cortex primarily via the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus, and secondarily through the superior colliculus. In rodents the converse is true: only a minority of retinal outputs project to the LGN, while 90% project to the superior colliculus (e.g. Ellis et al., 2016). Thus, it has been unclear how visual information from the outside world, for example visual landmarks that rodents use for orientation and navigation, is processed in the rodent brain. The study by Street and Jeffery in this issue of The Journal of Physiology, however, now provides a compelling answer: visual landmark information travels via the LGN, even in rodents.

Keywords
head direction cells; landmarks; lateral geniculate nucleus; spatial cognition.

Journal
The Journal of Physiology: Volume 602, Issue 20

StatusPublished
FundersSFARI Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)
Publication date30/09/2024
Publication date online30/09/2024
Date accepted by journal28/08/2024
PublisherWiley
ISSN0022-3751
eISSN1469-7793

People (1)

Professor Paul Dudchenko

Professor Paul Dudchenko

Professor, Psychology