Topic: retinotopic maps

The processing of natural visual environments rich with motion is central to animal survival. Many aspects of perceiving and detecting visual motion are already mature before the onset of visual experience. How the visual system develops to enable these functions in the absence of external stimuli remains unclear. A prominent transient feature of developing circuits is the ability to generate complex spatiotemporal patterns of spontaneous activity, even before sensory organs mature. For example, before vision onset in the mammalian retina, activity propagates in the form of spatiotemporally st

In a recent study in rodents in our team, we showed that sonogenetic therapy can be applied to stimulate the visual cortex (V1) at a high spatiotemporal resolution with ultrasound following the expression of the MscL mechanosensitive ionic channel. Moreover, we proved that sonogenetic activation of V1 can generate visual perception using an associative learning test.To develop sonogenetics as a vision restoration therapy the next step is to prove visual perception via sonogenetic stimulation in non-human primates (NHPs).Methods: In consequence, we proceeded to obtain retinotopic maps of NHP’s