Microstimulation in a spiking neural network model of the midbrain superior colliculus

The midbrain superior colliculus (SC) generates a rapid saccadic eye movement to a sensory stimulus by recruiting a population of cells in its topographically organized motor map. Supra-threshold electrical microstimulation in the SC reveals that the site of stimulation produces a normometric saccad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS computational biology 2019-04, Vol.15 (4), p.e1006522-e1006522
Main Authors: Kasap, Bahadir, van Opstal, A John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action potential
Analysis
Biophysics
Brain stem
Brain stimulation
Colliculus
Feedback circuits
Firing pattern
Kinematics
Mathematical models
Mesencephalon
Methods
Neural circuitry
Neural networks
Neurons
Parameters
Population
Properties
Saccadic eye movements
Spiking
Stimulation
Superior colliculi
Superior colliculus
Trajectories
Velocity
Visual pathways
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Summary:The midbrain superior colliculus (SC) generates a rapid saccadic eye movement to a sensory stimulus by recruiting a population of cells in its topographically organized motor map. Supra-threshold electrical microstimulation in the SC reveals that the site of stimulation produces a normometric saccade vector with little effect of the stimulation parameters. Moreover, electrically evoked saccades (E-saccades) have kinematic properties that strongly resemble natural, visual-evoked saccades (V-saccades). These findings support models in which the saccade vector is determined by a center-of-gravity computation of activated neurons, while its trajectory and kinematics arise from downstream feedback circuits in the brainstem. Recent single-unit recordings, however, have indicated that the SC population also specifies instantaneous kinematics. These results support an alternative model, in which the desired saccade trajectory, including its kinematics, follows from instantaneous summation of movement effects of all SC spike trains. But how to reconcile this model with microstimulation results? Although it is thought that microstimulation activates a large population of SC neurons, the mechanism through which it arises is unknown. We developed a spiking neural network model of the SC, in which microstimulation directly activates a relatively small set of neurons around the electrode tip, which subsequently sets up a large population response through lateral synaptic interactions. We show that through this mechanism the population drives an E-saccade with near-normal kinematics that are largely independent of the stimulation parameters. Only at very low stimulus intensities the network recruits a population with low firing rates, resulting in abnormally slow saccades.
ISSN:1553-7358
1553-734X
1553-7358
DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006522