# Effects of locomotion on visual inter-areal processing

> **NIH NIH F30** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $53,974

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
A central question in systems neuroscience is how brain states modulate sensory processing. Because
sensory processing is accomplished by a distributed network of areas, a major component of how brain states
modulate sensory processing might involve dynamic and flexible relaying of sensory signals between brain
areas. The visual system’s rich inter-connectivity makes it an excellent model for elucidating flexible inter-areal
communication. Brain state changes with locomotion, in a manner that is intimately and intricately intertwined
with visual processing. Locomotion has been shown to affect visual responses and may also be used to
generate internal predictions of visual input. However, previous research has focused on within-area effects of
locomotion in visual processing. To understand how locomotion influences visual processing, we must
understand how locomotion alters visual inter-areal signaling. Our goal in this project is to understand how
locomotion affects the flow of visual information between areas during contexts of passive viewing and
visuomotor feedback. We hypothesize that locomotion will flexibly alter inter-areal visual processing by
improving communication of visual information and generating feedback predictions of visual input. To this end,
we will utilize high density laminar probes that will record population activity from multiple brain areas
simultaneously during different locomotive contexts. We will evaluate communication between areas using
modern multivariate analytic methods which have revealed the patterns of population activity that are relayed
between brain areas, termed “communication subspaces”. In Aim 1, we will present mice with visual stimuli
during locomotion whilst recording from visual areas dLGN, V1 and LM. We will use the resultant data to
evaluate how locomotion affects the inter-areal signaling of visual information via communication subspaces. In
Aim 2, we will manipulate the relationship between locomotion and concurrent visual input via virtual reality
feedback, whilst recording from dLGN, V1, and frontal areas ACC/M2, to determine how locomotion-generated
expectations of visual input are transmitted between areas and affect sensory representations. We will
momentarily decouple locomotion and visual feedback and evaluate how discrepancies between visuomotor
expectation are relayed between areas and alter sensory representations. We will also provide a causal test of
ACC/M2’s role in affecting visual representations by providing visuomotor predictions. Our project seeks to
uncover the nature of the interaction between locomotion and sensory information flow within the visual
system. In doing so, we aim to elucidate basic principles of how brain states flexibly modulate communication
between brain areas.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10825498
- **Project number:** 1F30EY035930-01
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Elliot Kim
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $53,974
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-04-01 → 2028-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10825498

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10825498, Effects of locomotion on visual inter-areal processing (1F30EY035930-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10825498. Licensed CC0.

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