Neural and behavioral data from: A dynamic sequence of visual processing initiated by gaze shifts

Animals move their head and eyes as they explore and sample the visual
scene. Previous studies have demonstrated neural correlates of head and
eye movements in rodent primary visual cortex (V1), but the sources and
computational roles of these signals are unclear. We addressed this by
combining measurement of head and eye movements with high density neural
recordings in freely moving mice. V1 neurons responded primarily to gaze
shifts, where head movements are accompanied by saccadic eye movements,
rather than to head movements where compensatory eye movements stabilize
gaze. A variety of activity patterns immediately followed gaze shifts,
including units with positive, biphasic, or negative responses, and
together these responses formed a temporal sequence following the gaze
shift. These responses were greatly diminished in the dark for the vast
majority of units, replaced by a uniform suppression of activity, and were
similar to those evoked by sequentially flashed stimuli in head-fixed
conditions, suggesting that gaze shift transients represent the temporal
response to the rapid onset of new visual input. Notably, neurons
responded in a sequence that matches their spatial frequency preference,
from low to high spatial frequency tuning, consistent with coarse-to-fine
processing of the visual scene following each gaze shift. Recordings in
foveal V1 of freely gazing head-fixed marmosets revealed a similar
sequence of temporal response following a saccade, as well as the
progression of spatial frequency tuning. Together, our results demonstrate
that active vision in both mice and marmosets consists of a dynamic
temporal sequence of neural activity associated with visual sampling.