Encoding visual stimuli by striatal neurons

To move through the world, animals extract visual features from objects. Although visual object encoding is considered a cortical attribute, subcortical areas also contain visual processing circuits. Using electrophysiological recordings of spiny projection neurons (SPNs) located in a target region of the primary visual cortex, we identified striatal modules that process basic visual features. SPNs from the direct and indirect pathways exhibited high orientation selectivity in the absence of behavioral contingencies. SPNs population activity reliably predicted different visual features. Pathway-specific silencing of SPNs revealed that high orientation selectivity depends on intra-striatal connectivity. Thus, specialized striatal modules are active participants in visual feature extraction. These findings indicate parallel visual information processing in basal ganglia circuits, expanding current models of visual perception beyond cortical networks.