Thalamic activation of the visual cortex at the single-synapse level
Summary
Deciphering thalamocortical (TC) activation at the level of individual synapses is essential to understanding how the cortex processes sensory information. In this work, we studied TC computation underlying the emergence of orientation selectivity in the mammalian primary visual cortex (V1). Using two-photon glutamate imaging and optogenetic cortical silencing in vivo, we identified and characterized TC synapses onto mouse V1 layer 4 neurons. We found that TC- but not corticocortical-recip
Content
# Thalamic activation of the visual cortex at the single-synapse level
*Published: 2026 Mar 26*
Deciphering thalamocortical (TC) activation at the level of individual synapses
is essential to understanding how the cortex processes sensory information. In
this work, we studied TC computation underlying the emergence of orientation
selectivity in the mammalian primary visual cortex (V1). Using two-photon
glutamate imaging and optogenetic cortical silencing in vivo, we identified and
characterized TC synapses onto mouse V1 layer 4 neurons. We found that TC- but
not corticocortical-recipient spines lacked postsynaptic Ca2+ signals. Our
results directly validate the core predictions of Hubel and Wiesel's feedforward
model and reveal distinctive synaptic properties that are critical for cortical
computation and plasticity.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aec9923