Calcium imaging data from: Functional organization of visual responses in the octopus optic lobe

Cephalopods are highly visual animals with camera-type eyes, large brains,
and a rich repertoire of visually guided behaviors. However, the
cephalopod brain evolved independently from that of other highly visual
species, such as vertebrates, and therefore the neural circuits that
process sensory information are profoundly different. It is largely
unknown how their powerful but unique visual system functions, since there
have been no direct neural measurements of visual responses in the
cephalopod brain. In this study, we used two-photon calcium imaging to
record visually evoked responses in the primary visual processing center
of the octopus central brain, the optic lobe, to determine how basic
features of the visual scene are represented and organized. We found
spatially localized receptive fields for light (ON) and dark (OFF)
stimuli, which were retinotopically organized across the optic lobe,
demonstrating a hallmark of visual system organization shared across many
species. Examination of these responses revealed transformations of the
visual representation across the layers of the optic lobe, including the
emergence of the OFF pathway and increased size selectivity. We also
identified asymmetries in the spatial processing of ON and OFF stimuli,
which suggest unique circuit mechanisms for form processing that may have
evolved to suit the specific demands of processing an underwater visual
scene. This study provides insight into the neural processing and
functional organization of the octopus visual system, highlighting both
shared and unique aspects, and lays a foundation for future studies of the
neural circuits that mediate visual processing and behavior in
cephalopods.