A neural circuit model of the oculomotor integrator: theory for optogenetic dissection
| Dates: | 11 June 2014 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Life Sciences |
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| Who is it for: | University staff |
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| Speaker: | Pedro Goncalves |
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The oculomotor integrator (OI) in the hindbrain transforms incoming horizontal eye movement commands into position signals to maintain stable eye fixations after saccades. Previous electrophysiological and pharmacological investigations of the system have shown that neurons in the OI have firing rates that can persist at a continuum of levels, with each level corresponding to a particular fixation. These findings have led to the hypothesis that the OI has a continuum of stable stationary states, giving rise to a continuous attractor network. In this work, we will show that several models can account for previous results, yet differ in their dynamical behavior after instantaneous perturbations of the OI. To further constrain the models, we performed optogenetic perturbations in the OI of zebrafish. The resulting instantaneous eye movements suggest that the dynamics of the OI are organized around a central attractor state. These results pose new constraints on the circuit connectivity of the system, and highlight the potential of the combination of optogenetics with theoretical models to unveil neural circuit dynamics. (Joint work with Aristides Arrenberg, Bastian Hablitzel, Herwig Baier and Christian Machens)
Speaker
Pedro Goncalves
Organisation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL
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AV Hill Building
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