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TY  - THES
AU  - Rüland, Thomas Klaus
TI  - "Neuronal activity in primary visual cortex and superior colliculus of the rd10 mouse model for retinal degeneration"
PB  - RWTH Aachen University
VL  - Dissertation
CY  - Aachen
M1  - RWTH-2023-08351
SP  - 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen, Diagramme
PY  - 2022
N1  - Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 2023
N1  - Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2022
AB  - Vision restoration in patients affected by complete or partial blindness due to photoreceptor degeneration has been a longstanding aim in vision research. Retinal implants have emerged as a very promising technique to achieve this goal, but evoked visual impressions are still quite simple and success of the treatment is not guaranteed. Even though technical limitations of the currently employed implants might cause these ongoing issues, functional changes in the brain of affected individuals caused by the loss of visual input could impair the processing of retinally evoked stimuli and pose additional problems. This thesis therefore used the rd10 mouse model for retinal degeneration to investigate whether cross-modal changes in the brain can be found. First, visual ability of the experimental animals was determined using the optomotor response (OMR). Results showed that rd10 mice retained their visual responses for 18 weeks of age on average, which was later than suggested by previous histological investigations. To characterize potential cross-modal changes, high-density electrophysiological recordings in superior colliculus (SC) and primary visual cortex (V1) of behaviorally blind rd10 mice were conducted and responses to visual, auditory and tactile stimulation measured. As expected, no activity related to the visual stimulus could be found in rd10 mice. Surprisingly however, responses to auditory and tactile stimulation as well as distributions of responsive cells were not different to those from a normal vision control group, suggesting no cross-modal changes of visually deprived areas. Additionally, the local field potential (LFP) as well as spiking activity of rd10 mice showed aberrant oscillatory activity in V1 and SC that was similar in shape and frequency to aberrant activity previously found in extracted retinae of the same mouse model. This thesis therefore proposes that this continuous pathological retinal input might prevent upper visual pathway areas like V1 and SC from changing their response profile to non-visual stimuli even after blindness onset and in turn helps retain their ability to process stimulations by retinal implants.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)11
DO  - DOI:10.18154/RWTH-2023-08351
UR  - https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/967944
ER  -