Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Neurosciences Graduate Program, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States; Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Andrew H Chang
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States
Alexandra Clemente-Perez
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Neurosciences Graduate Program, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States; Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States
Agnieszka Ciesielska
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States
University of California, San Francisco, Department of Physiology, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Neurosciences Graduate Program, San Francisco, United States; Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Neurosciences Graduate Program, San Francisco, United States; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Neurology, San Francisco, United States; Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Visual perception in natural environments depends on the ability to focus on salient stimuli while ignoring distractions. This kind of selective visual attention is associated with gamma activity in the visual cortex. While the nucleus reticularis thalami (nRT) has been implicated in selective attention, its role in modulating gamma activity in the visual cortex remains unknown. Here, we show that somatostatin- (SST) but not parvalbumin-expressing (PV) neurons in the visual sector of the nRT preferentially project to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN), and modulate visual information transmission and gamma activity in primary visual cortex (V1). These findings pinpoint the SST neurons in nRT as powerful modulators of the visual information encoding accuracy in V1 and represent a novel circuit through which the nRT can influence representation of visual information.
