Extended Data Fig. 7: AAV-Cre control experiments and supporting anatomical evidence of vLGN projections using Gad2-Cre expression.

a-c. Anterograde AAV1-Cre mediated intersectional approach, initiated in the visual cortex, is specific for the visual thalamus. a. Top right, a schematic of a sagittal brain showing the location of anterograde transsynaptic vector injection in the primary visual cortex (V1, red dot) and Cre-dependent vector injection in the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN, green dot). Bottom left, a schematic of a horizontal brain section showing the rostro-caudal locations (magenta dashed line) of the images shown in (b,c). b. Confocal image of the injection site in primary visual cortex (V1), scale bar: 500 µm (n = 3 animals). c. High-magnification confocal images of V1 across cortical layers (L4, top; L5, middle; L6, bottom). All scale bars: 20 µm. d-e. Brain-wide vLGN projections using targeted infections in Gad2-Cre animals. d. Top right, schematic of a sagittal brain showing the location of anterograde vector injection into the vLGN; bottom left, schematic of a horizontal brain section showing the rostro-caudal locations (magenta dashed line) of the vLGN efferents and the injection site. e. Coronal confocal images of vLGN terminals of nucleus reuniens, Lateral posterior nucleus (LP), Olivary pretectal nucleus (OPN), Area pretectalis (APT), Pons and Inferior olive (IO). Injection site in vLGN and projections to the superior colliculus are shown in Fig. 6. Scale bars: 100 µm (n = 3 animals).