The mammalian striatum receives inputs from many cortical areas, but the existence of a direct axonal projection from the primary visual cortex (V1) is controversial.In this study we use anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques to demonstrate that V1 directly innervates a topographically defined longitudinal strip of dorsomedial striatum in galaxy harmony nc mice.We find that this projection forms functional excitatory synapses with direct and indirect pathway striatal projection bovi-shield gold fp 5 l5 neurons (SPNs) and engages feed-forward inhibition onto these cells.Importantly, stimulation of V1 afferents is sufficient to evoke phasic firing in SPNs.
These findings therefore identify a striatal region that is functionally innervated by V1 and suggest that early visual processing may play an important role in striatal-based behaviors.