Impact of Pulvinar on cortical visual processing

The perception of external stimuli is traditionally considered to result solely from the processing of thalamic signals through direct cortico-cortical connections between areas organized in a hierarchical manner1. In this corticocentric view, the potential role of higher-order (HO) thalamic nuclei that are reciprocally connected to cortical areas is not considered.
The main objective of this project is to test this hypothesis at the visual system level by examining the impact of modulating the neural activity of the pulvinar, the HO visual thalamic nucleus, on the processing of information within and across areas of the visual cortex. We postulate that the pulvinar will modulate activity in the primary visual cortex and will both contribute to specific RF properties and exert contextual modulation in higher-order areas. To test our hypotheses, we will determine the impact of inactivating sub-regions of the pulvinar on the cortical activity of areas of different hierarchical levels measured by optical brain imaging.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christian Casanova

Student:

Partner:

Université Clermont Auvergne

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: