title: Activation of Parvalbumin-Positive Neurons in Both Retina and Primary Visual Cortex Improves the Feature-Selectivity of Primary Visual Cortex Neurons.
abstract: Several recent studies using either viral or transgenic mouse models have shown different results on whether the activation of parvalbumin-positive (PV+) neurons expressing channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in the primary visual cortex (V1) improves the orientation- and direction-selectivity of V1 neurons. Although this discrepancy was thoroughly discussed in a follow-up communication, the issue of using different models to express ChR2 in V1 was not mentioned. We found that ChR2 was expressed in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and V1 neurons in ChR2fl/+; PV-Cre mice. Our results showed that the activation of PV+RGCs using white drifting gratings alone significantly decreased the firing rates of V1 neurons and improved their direction- and orientation-selectivity. Long-duration activation of PV+interneurons in V1 further enhanced the feature-selectivity of V1 neurons in anesthetized mice, confirming the conclusions from previous findings. These results suggest that the activation of both PV+RGCs and V1 neurons improves feature-selectivity in mice.
authors.affiliation: Institutes of Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
authors.forename: Jinggang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Institutes of Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Institutes of Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China. jiayizhang@fudan.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiayi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D007395:Interneurons / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D062308:Optogenetics; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D010320:Parvalbumins
keywords: Optogenetics; Parvalbumin neurons; Primary visual cortex; Retinal ganglion cells