title: A direct projection from mouse primary visual cortex to dorsomedial striatum.
abstract: The mammalian striatum receives inputs from many cortical areas, but the existence of a direct axonal projection from the primary visual cortex (V1) is controversial. In this study we use anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques to demonstrate that V1 directly innervates a topographically defined longitudinal strip of dorsomedial striatum in mice. We find that this projection forms functional excitatory synapses with direct and indirect pathway striatal projection neurons (SPNs) and engages feed-forward inhibition onto these cells. Importantly, stimulation of V1 afferents is sufficient to evoke phasic firing in SPNs. These findings therefore identify a striatal region that is functionally innervated by V1 and suggest that early visual processing may play an important role in striatal-based behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lena A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Khibnik
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nicolas X
authors.initials: NX
authors.lastname: Tritsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Bernardo L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Sabatini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology