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. 2021 Nov 13;10(11):3162. doi: 10.3390/cells10113162

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Visual pathways. (A) Sagittal view of the rodent visual system. V1, primary visual area; SC, superior colliculus; dLGN, dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. (B) Superior view of the rodent visual system. Red, visual inputs from the left eye. Blue, visual inputs from the right eye. (C) Simplified synaptic organization of visual inputs to rodent dLGN. The relay cell receives 3 types of excitatory inputs: (1) small amount (~5%) of functionally powerful contralateral inputs from the retina on proximal dendrite (red), (2) numerous (~50%) but functionally weak feed-back inputs from V1 (orange) on distal dendrites and (3) from the SC (light blue) on medial and distal dendrites. In addition, it is inhibited by interneurons located in the TRN (thalamic reticular nucleus) and in the dLGN (grey). (D) Principal inputs and outputs of rodent SC neurons. In the superficial layer, SC neurons receive excitatory inputs from the retina (red) and from V1 (orange) and an inhibitory feed-back (grey) from interneurons located deeper in the SC. Superficial excitatory neurons contact deeper premotor neurons and neurons in the dLGN. Premotor neurons in the deep layer feed gaze centers of the brain. Adapted from [11].