Cytoarchitecure and Connectivity of the Superior Colliculus in Mouse Brain

Abstract

Superior Colliculus (SC) plays a vital role in visual target selection and attention shifting; it also an important structure in studying the central nervous system. However, the cytoarchitecture and connectivity of the SC in mouse brain have not been explicitly explored. In this paper, to investigate the structural delineations and of connectivity SC, we first delineated the morphology of the SC by Nissl stain, and further explored different genes expressed in the SC. It demonstrates that gene Tpd52l1 is densely expressed in the SC, which helps describe the borders of the SC. In addition, we explore the connectivity of Superior Colliculus (validating the projections from other structures to SC and examining the projections from SC to other structure). The anterograde and retrograde projection circuitries between SC and IC are particularly addressed, which indicates that the SC is involved in the visual, auditory and other somatosensory physiological activities.