Orientation bias of cat dorsal lateral geniculate cells: directional analysis of the major axis of the receptive field centre

1991 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Ahmed ◽  
P. Hammond
2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 871-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.T. EINEVOLL ◽  
P. HEGGELUND

Spatial receptive fields of relay cells in dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) have commonly been modeled as a difference of two Gaussian functions. We present alternative models for dLGN cells which take known physiological couplings between retina and dLGN and within dLGN into account. The models include excitatory input from a single retinal ganglion cell and feedforward inhibition via intrageniculate interneurons. Mathematical formulas describing the receptive field and response to circular spot stimuli are found both for models with a finite and an infinite number of ganglion-cell inputs to dLGN neurons. The advantage of these models compared to the common difference-of-Gaussians model is that they, in addition to providing mathematical descriptions of the receptive fields of dLGN neurons, also make explicit contributions from the geniculate circuit. Moreover, the model parameters have direct physiological relevance and can be manipulated and measured experimentally. The discrete model is applied to recently published data (Ruksenas et al., 2000) on response versus spot-diameter curves for dLGN cells and for the retinal input to the cell (S-potentials). The models are found to account well for the results for the X-cells in these experiments. Moreover, predictions from the discrete model regarding receptive-field sizes of interneurons, the amount of center-surround antagonism for interneurons compared to relay cells, and distance between neighboring retinal ganglion cells providing input to interneurons, are all compatible with data available in the literature.


1988 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 1333-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Mooney ◽  
M. M. Nikoletseas ◽  
S. A. Ruiz ◽  
R. W. Rhoades

1. Intracellular recording, antidromic activation, and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injection techniques were employed to characterize the receptive-field properties and morphology of the superior collicular (SC) neurons in the hamster that projected to the lateral posterior nucleus (LP) or the dorsal lateral geniculate body (LGNd). 2. Twenty-three tecto-LP and 21 tecto-LGNd cells were successfully characterized, filled with HRP, and recovered. Additional physiological information was obtained from four tecto-LP and five tecto-LGNd neurons in which HRP injections did not completely label the cell, but did provide information as to the laminar location of the soma. Recovered neurons were classified as wide-field or narrow-field vertical cells, marginal cells, stellate cells, or horizontal cells on the basis of their soma-dendritic morphology. They were categorized as stationary responsive (SR), movement sensitive (MV), or directionally selective (DS) on the basis of their physiological responses (3, 37). 3. The somas of the recovered tecto-LP cells were located, with two exceptions, in, or near, the borders of the stratum opticum (SO). Tecto-LGNd neurons, with two exceptions, had their cell bodies in the upper one-half of the stratum griseum superficiale (SGS). Fifty-two percent of the recovered tecto-LP cells were wide-field vertical cells, 22% were narrow-field vertical cells, 13% were stellate cells, 9% were horizontal cells, and 4% could not be classified according to the scheme that we employed. Twenty-four percent of the recovered tecto-LGNd cells were marginal cells, 24% were stellate cells, 38% were narrow-field vertical cells, 5% were horizontal cells, 5% were wide-field vertical cells, and 5% could not be classified. The difference between the distributions of morphological cell types that contributed to the tecto-LGNd and tecto-LP pathways was statistically significant (chi 2 = 15.8, P less than 0.01). 4. Sixty-seven percent of the tecto-LP cells had MV receptive fields, 11% were DS, 7% had SR fields, and 15% were unresponsive. The distribution of receptive-field types for tecto-LGNd cells was somewhat different: 54% had SR fields, 15% were MV, 19% were DS, 4% were somatosensory, 4% were unresponsive, and 4% were incompletely classified. These differences between tecto-LP and tecto-LGNd cells were statistically significant (chi 2 = 18.4, P less than 0.001). The strongest correlation between morphology and receptive-field type was observed for the wide-field vertical cells that projected to LP. All but one of these had MV receptive fields.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


1990 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 525-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl L. Smith ◽  
Yuzo M. Chino ◽  
William H. Ridder ◽  
Kosuke Kitagawa ◽  
Andy Langston

AbstractThe purpose of this investigation was to analyze the influence of stimulus orientation on the responses of individual neurons in the monkey's lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Our specific goals were to assess the prevalence and the degree of orientation tuning in the monkey LGN and to determine if the preferred stimulus orientations of LGN neurons varied as a function of receptive-field position. The primary motivation for this research was to gain insight into the receptive-field configuration of LGN neurons and consequently into the neural mechanisms which determine the spatial organization of LGN receptive fields in primates.In both the parvocellular and magnocellular layers, the responses of the majority of individual neurons to sine-wave gratings varied as a function of stimulus orientation. The influence of stimulus orientation was, however, highly dependent on the spatial characteristics of the stimulus; the greatest degree of orientation bias was observed for spatial frequencies higher than the cell's optimal spatial frequency. On a population basis, the degree of orientation bias was similar for all major classes of LGN neurons (e.g. ON vs. OFF center; parvocellular vs. magnocellular) and did not vary systematically with receptive-field eccentricity. At a given receptive-field location, LGN neurons, particularly cells in the parvocellular laminae, tended to prefer either radially oriented stimuli or stimuli oriented more horizontally than their polar axis. Our analyses of the orientation-dependent changes in spatial-frequency response functions, which was based on the Soodak et al., (1987; Soodak, 1986) two-dimensional, difference-of-Gaussian receptive-field model, suggested that the orientation bias in LGN neurons was due to an elongation of the receptive-field center mechanism which in some cases appeared to consist of multiple subunits. Direct comparisons of the orientation-tuning characteristics of LGN cells and their retinal inputs (S potentials) indicated that the orientation bias in the monkey LGN reflects primarily the functional properties of individual retinal ganglion cells. We conclude that orientation sensitivity is a significant property of subcortical neurons in the primate's geniculo-cortical pathway.


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