Mouse visual cortex contains a region of enhanced spatial resolution

• The representation of space in mouse visual cortex was thought to be relatively uniform. Here we reveal, using population receptive-field (pRF) mapping techniques, that mouse visual cortex contains a region in which pRFs are considerably smaller. This region, the “focea,” represents a location in space in front of, and slightly above, the mouse. Using two-photon imaging we show that the smaller pRFs are due to lower scatter of receptive-fields at the focea and an over-representation of binocular regions of space. We show that receptive-fields of single-neurons in areas LM and AL are smaller at the focea and that mice have improved visual resolution in this region of space. Furthermore, freely moving mice make compensatory eye-movements to hold this region in front of them. Our results indicate that mice have spatial biases in their visual processing, a finding that has important implications for the use of the mouse model of vision.

Recommended citation: Enny H van Beest, Sreedeep Mukherjee, Lisa Kirchberger, Ulf H Schnabel, Chris van der Togt, Rob RM Teeuwen, Areg Barsegyan, Arne F Meyer, Jasper Poort, Pieter R Roelfsema, Matthew W Self (2021). "Mouse visual cortex contains a region of enhanced spatial resolution." Nature communications.
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