# Cone Integration in the visual cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 2020 · $379,420

## Abstract

Abstract
A problem at the core neuroscience research is to understand how sensory neurons are wired to detect
features that aid in the organism's navigation. Vision begins with the photoreceptor mosaic, followed
immediately by exquisite retinal circuitry that detects basic changes in contrast and color, at every location of
an image. Beyond the retina, successive stages of visual cortex gradually integrate parallel streams of
information to create tuning of increasing complexity. Visual neuroscience has been especially useful for
understanding the computations performed by the cortex, partly because the early parallel pathways initiated in
the retina can be stimulated in a highly controlled manner with standard visual displays. However, the field still
lacks detailed mechanistic models of cortical function that are constrained by experimental data, a necessary
hurdle to ultimately bridge studies of visual cortex to cortical-based pathologies. For this reason, the mouse's
visual system is an important model for understanding cortical circuits; genetic tools in the mouse allow
researchers unparalleled flexibility to manipulate and label specific cell-types that are known to make
independent contributions to cortical function. In addition to genetic tools, the use of colored stimuli with the
mouse may be especially fruitful for understanding general strategies of cortical computation. This study uses
a combination of visual stimuli and knock-out mice to target subpopulations of the retina, with the overall goal
of understanding how the integration of retinal populations contributes to multiple stages of processing within
the visual cortex. An early goal of the proposal is to generate the first characterization of the spatio-temporal
tuning in primary visual cortex (V1), as a function of the distribution of cone inputs from the retina. This
characterization is necessary to leverage future studies of parallel processing streams in the mouse visual
cortex, such as ours. It will also test the hypothesis that color is encoded independently of the spatial and
dynamic patterns of a visual scene. In the next aim, we will measure fundamental principles of cortical wiring
by testing the hypothesis that V1 color tuning is shaped by systematic pooling of its feedforward inputs. The
alternative hypothesis is that the cortex builds hierarchies of tuning by “random” circuits. These measurements
are made possible by coarse anisotropy in the photoreceptor mosaic of mice. In the final aim, we will
investigate how different visual cortical areas communicate via parallel channels. To begin, we will determine if
higher visual areas are dedicated to processing specific bands of color, space, and time. This will be followed
by measurements of how interneurons contribute to the cortico-cortical integration of pathways, using spatially
structured optogenetics. The experimental design of the proposal relies on genetic tools, imaging,
electrophysiology, optogenetics, and the ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9959413
- **Project number:** 5R01EY028657-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **Principal Investigator:** Ian Michael Nauhaus
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $379,420
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9959413

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9959413, Cone Integration in the visual cortex (5R01EY028657-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9959413. Licensed CC0.

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