Visual response characteristics of neuronal clusters in the caudate nucleus of behaving cats

Nagypál Tamás
Visual response characteristics of neuronal clusters in the caudate nucleus of behaving cats.
Doctoral thesis (PhD), University of Szeged.
(2016) (Unpublished)

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Abstract in foreign language

Beside its motor functions, the caudate nucleus (CN), the main input structure of the basal ganglia, is also sensitive to various sensory modalities. The goal of our work was to investigate the effects of visual stimulation on the CN by using a behaving, head-restrained, eye movement-controlled feline model developed recently for this purpose in our laboratory. Extracellular multielectrode recordings were made from the CN in a visual fixation paradigm applying static and dynamic stimuli. The recorded neurons were classified in three groups according to their electrophysiological properties: phasically active (PAN), tonically active (TAN) and high-firing (HFN) neurons. The visual response characteristics were investigated according to this classification. The PAN and TAN neurons were sensitive primarily to static stimuli, while the HFN neurons responded primarily to changes in the visual environment i.e. to optic flow and the offset of the stimuli. The HFNs were the most sensitive to visual stimulation; their responses were stronger than those of the PANs and TANs. The majority of the recorded units were insensitive to the direction of the optic flow, regardless of group, but a small number of direction-sensitive neurons were also found. These demonstrate that both the static and the dynamic components of the visual information are represented in the CN. Furthermore, these results provide the first piece of evidence on optic flow processing in the CN, which, in more general terms, indicates the possible role of this structure in dynamic visual information processing.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral thesis (PhD))
Creators: Nagypál Tamás
Hungarian title: A nucleus caudatus neuronok vizuális válaszkarakterisztikái éber házimacskákban
Supervisor(s):
Supervisor
Position, academic title, institution
MTMT author ID
Nagy Attila
egyetemi docens, PhD, SZTE ÁOK Élettani Intézet
10012540
Subjects: 03. Medical and health sciences > 03.01. Basic medicine
Divisions: Doctoral School of Theoretical Medicine
Discipline: Medicine > Theoretical Medicine
Language: English
Date: 2016. April 25.
Item ID: 2816
MTMT identifier of the thesis: 3090036
doi: https://doi.org/10.14232/phd.2816
Date Deposited: 2015. Dec. 08. 09:58
Last Modified: 2020. Apr. 28. 09:17
Depository no.: B 6018
URI: https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/2816
Defence/Citable status: Defended.

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