Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28986534›Full record

ArticleNature communications2017

Spatial scale of receptive fields in the visual sector of the cat thalamic reticular nucleus.

Cristina Soto-Sánchez, Xin Wang, Vishal Vaingankar, Friedrich T Sommer, Judith A Hirsch

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. GABAergic Projections from the Pretectum Boost Retinogeniculate Signal Transfer via Disinhibition.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  4. Highly selective visual receptive fields in mouse frontal cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Role of Feedback Connections in Central Visual Processing.Annual review of vision science · 2020
    Review
  11. Contrast gain control and retinogeniculate communication.The European journal of neuroscience · 2019
    Article
  12. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Cristina Soto-SánchezDepartment of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, 503 HNB, MC 2520, 3641 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2520, USA.
Xin WangDepartment of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, 503 HNB, MC 2520, 3641 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2520, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3270-3782
Vishal VaingankarDepartment of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, 503 HNB, MC 2520, 3641 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2520, USA.
Friedrich T SommerRedwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience-HWNI, University of California at Berkeley, 575A Evans Hall, MC 3198, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3198, USA.
Judith A HirschDepartment of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, 503 HNB, MC 2520, 3641 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2520, USA. jhirsch@usc.edu.

Funding

Neural Circuits That Process Visual InformationR01EY009593 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI Judith A Hirsch · 1999 to 2026
$9.2M
NEI NIH HHS R01 EY009593
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Inhibitory projections from the visual sector of the thalamic reticular nucleus to the lateral geniculate nucleus complete the earliest feedback loop in the mammalian visual pathway and regulate the flow of information from retina to cortex. There are two competing hypotheses about the function of the thalamic reticular nucleus. One regards the structure as a thermostat that uniformly regulates thalamic activity through negative feedback. Alternatively, the searchlight hypothesis argues for a role in focal attentional modulation through positive feedback, consistent with observations that behavioral state influences reticular activity. Here, we address the question of whether cells in the reticular nucleus have receptive fields small enough to provide localized feedback by devising methods to quantify the size of these fields across visual space. Our results show that reticular neurons in the cat operate over discrete spatial scales, at once supporting the searchlight hypothesis and a role in feature selective sensory processing.The searchlight hypothesis proposes that the thalamic reticular nucleus regulates thalamic relay activity through focal attentional modulation. Here the authors show that the receptive field sizes of reticular neurons are small enough to provide localized feedback onto thalamic neurons in the visual pathway.

Indexed as

Action PotentialsAnimalsAttentionCatsGeniculate BodiesNeuronsVentral Thalamic NucleiVisual Pathways

Identifiers

PMID28986534
PMCPMC5630618

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.