scholarly journals Development of cortical orientation selectivity in the absence of visual experience with contour

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 1923-1932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomokazu Ohshiro ◽  
Shaista Hussain ◽  
Michael Weliky
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Orientation Selectivity ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Full Development ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Eye Opening ◽  
Visual Cortical

Visual cortical neurons are selective for the orientation of lines, and the full development of this selectivity requires natural visual experience after eye opening. Here we examined whether this selectivity develops without seeing lines and contours. Juvenile ferrets were reared in a dark room and visually trained by being shown a movie of flickering, sparse spots. We found that despite the lack of contour visual experience, the cortical neurons of these ferrets developed strong orientation selectivity and exhibited simple-cell receptive fields. This finding suggests that overt contour visual experience is unnecessary for the maturation of orientation selectivity and is inconsistent with the computational models that crucially require the visual inputs of lines and contours for the development of orientation selectivity. We propose that a correlation-based model supplemented with a constraint on synaptic strength dynamics is able to account for our experimental result.

scholarly journals Impact of acute visual experience on development of LGN receptive fields in the ferret

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea K Stacy ◽  
Nathan A Schneider ◽  
Noah K Gilman ◽  
Stephen D Van Hooser
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
In Vivo Electrophysiology ◽  
Primate Visual Cortex ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Visual Cortical

Selectivity for direction of motion is a key feature of primary visual cortical neurons. Visual experience is required for direction selectivity in carnivore and primate visual cortex, but the circuit mechanisms of its formation remain incompletely understood. Here we examined how developing lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons may contribute to cortical direction selectivity. Using in vivo electrophysiology techniques, we examined LGN receptive field properties of visually naive female ferrets before and after exposure to 6 hours of motion stimuli in order to assess the effect of acute visual experience on LGN cell development. We found that acute experience with motion stimuli did not significantly affect the weak orientation or direction selectivity of LGN neurons. In addition, we found that neither latency nor sustainedness or transience of LGN neurons significantly changed with acute experience. These results suggest that the direction selectivity that emerges in cortex after acute experience is computed in cortex and cannot be explained by changes in LGN cells.

Orientation selectivity of visual cortical neurons at different stimulus intensities in cats

1984 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
N. A. Lazareva ◽  
R. V. Novikova ◽  
A. S. Tikhomirov ◽  
I. A. Shevelev ◽  
G. A. Sharaev
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Orientation Selectivity ◽  
Visual Cortical

The response dynamics of primate visual cortical neurons to simulated optical blur

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL L. RISNER ◽  
TIMOTHY J. GAWNE
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Form Perception ◽  
Response Dynamics ◽  
V1 Neurons ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Optical Blur ◽  
Visual Cortical

AbstractNeurons in visual cortical area V1 typically respond well to lines or edges of specific orientations. There have been many studies investigating how the responses of these neurons to an oriented edge are affected by changes in luminance contrast. However, in natural images, edges vary not only in contrast but also in the degree of blur, both because of changes in focus and also because shadows are not sharp. The effect of blur on the response dynamics of visual cortical neurons has not been explored. We presented luminance-defined single edges in the receptive fields of parafoveal (1–6 deg eccentric) V1 neurons of two macaque monkeys trained to fixate a spot of light. We varied the width of the blurred region of the edge stimuli up to 0.36 deg of visual angle. Even though the neurons responded robustly to stimuli that only contained high spatial frequencies and 0.36 deg is much larger than the limits of acuity at this eccentricity, changing the degree of blur had minimal effect on the responses of these neurons to the edge. Primates need to measure blur at the fovea to evaluate image quality and control accommodation, but this might only involve a specialist subpopulation of neurons. If visual cortical neurons in general responded differently to sharp and blurred stimuli, then this could provide a cue for form perception, for example, by helping to disambiguate the luminance edges created by real objects from those created by shadows. On the other hand, it might be important to avoid the distraction of changing blur as objects move in and out of the plane of fixation. Our results support the latter hypothesis: the responses of parafoveal V1 neurons are largely unaffected by changes in blur over a wide range.

Receptive fields of visual cortical neurons during changes in parameters of photic stimulation in cats

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
I. A. Shevelev ◽  
V. G. Marchenko ◽  
I. V. Maksimova
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Photic Stimulation ◽  
Visual Cortical

scholarly journals FSRFNet: Feature-Selective and Spatial Receptive Fields Networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 3954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ma ◽  
Yang ◽  
Yu
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Neuroscience Community ◽  
Architectural Unit

The attention mechanism plays a crucial role in the human visual experience. In the cognitive neuroscience community, the receptive field size of visual cortical neurons is regulated by the additive effect of feature-selective and spatial attention. We propose a novel architectural unit called a “Feature-selective and Spatial Receptive Fields” (FSRF) block that implements adaptive receptive field sizes of neurons through the additive effects of feature-selective and spatial attention. We show that FSRF blocks can be inserted into the architecture of existing convolutional neural networks to form an FSRF network architecture, and test its generalization capabilities on different datasets.

Receptive-field properties of neurons in binocular and monocular segments of striate cortex in cats raised with binocular lid suture

1978 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Watkins ◽  
J. R. Wilson ◽  
S. M. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Orientation Selectivity ◽  
Peak Response ◽  
Response Properties

1. We studied the receptive fields of 171 striate cortical neurons from 17 cats raised with binocular lid suture. Of these, 102 fields were within 10 degrees of the area centralis and the remaining 69 were at least 38 degrees from the vertical meridian. 2. Based on their different response properties, cells were divided into three broad groups: the mappable cells (49%) had clearly defined receptive fields, the unmappable cells (31%) were activated by visual stimuli but had diffuse fields which could not be hand plotted, and the visually inexcitable cells (20%) could not be activated by visual stimuli. Very few (less than or equal to 12% of the total sample) normal simple or complex cells could be found. 3. Orientation selectivity was assessed in these cells. Only 12% displayed orientation selectivity within normal bounds, and these were all mappable cells. None of the unmappable cells had discernible orientation selectivity. 4. Ocular dominance was assessed for 62 of the centrally located receptive fields. Among mappable cells, there was an abnormally low proportion of binocular fields, while no such abnormality was seen for unmappable cells. 5. For 47 of the neurons, average response histograms were compiled for moving stimuli of various parameters in an effort to evoke the maximum discharge or peak response. This peak response was normal for mappable cells but reduced for unmappable cells. 6. We devised a technique for studying potential inhibitory receptive-field zones in these neurons, validated the method in normal striate cortex, and used it to test 20 mappable cells in the lid-sutured cats. None showed the pattern of strong inhibitory side bands seen in normal simple cells, although six showed weak or abnormal inhibitory zones. Interestingly, six of the seven visually inexcitable cells tested by this method had purely inhibitory receptive fields. 7. The effects of binocular suture were essentially identical for the binocular and monocular segments since the cell types and their response properties did not differ between these two areas of cortex. Furthermore, the cortical monocular segments of these cats seemed qualitatively different from the deprived cortical monocular segment after monocular suture. This extends an analogous difference for these cats reported for the monocular segments of the lateral geniculate nucleus. We thus conclude that monocularly and binocularly sutured cats develop by qualitatively different mechanisms. For the former, competition between central synapses related to each eye is a prominent feature of geniculocortical development, whereas, for the latter, such specific forms of geniculocortical development may not obtain.

Receptive-field properties of transcallosal visual cortical neurons in the normal and reeler mouse

1983 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 838-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Simmons ◽  
A. L. Pearlman
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Stimulus Velocity ◽  
Bipolar Electrodes ◽  
Receptive Field Properties ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Normal Cortex

The receptive-field properties of neurons in the striate visual cortex of normal and reeler mutant mice were studied with single-unit recording methods in order to determine whether the connections underlying these properties are altered by the developmental abnormality in neuronal position that characterizes reeler neocortex. Neurons with a projection through the corpus callosum were selected for study because they form a physiologically identifiable class of visual cortical neurons with a characteristic distribution of receptive-field properties that can be compared for normal and reeler cortex. Transcallosal cortical neurons in area 17 near its border with area 18a were identified by antidromic stimulation delivered through bipolar electrodes in the contralateral cortex. A computer controlled the visual stimuli, data acquisition, and analysis. Transcallosal neurons were principally found in layers II-III and V in the normal cortex and in a broand band deep in the reeler cortex. These populations had similar distributions of antidromic latencies, indicating that the neurons sampled from normal and reeler cortex were taken from populations with similar axonal diameters and soma sizes. The receptive-field properties of 46 units in 22 normal mice and 28 units in 11 reeler mice were characterized. Transcallosal neurons in both normal and reeler cortex were usually binocularly responsive and dominated by input from the contralateral eye. They exhibited either nonoriented (31 and 48%, respectively) or oriented (69 and 52%) receptive fields. Tuning 10 stimulus velocity was broad, with peak velocity sensitivities ranging from 1 to 1,000 degrees/s. Directional selectivity was present in 41% of normal units ad 32% of reeler units. There was no significant difference between normal and reeler cortex in the distribution of these properties. Transcallosal neurons were also examined for the presence of an inhibitory surround by comparing their responses to moving or stationary stimuli of varying sizes. Of the tested neurons, most (11/17 in normal cortex, 6/9 in reeler) showed evidence of a decrease in response to large moving stimuli. A large proportion (16/20) of normal neurons tested with stationary flashing stimuli had some degree of surround inhibition whereas significantly fewer (5/17) neurons in reeler cortex had this property. Thus, transcallosal neurons in reeler cortex less frequently had an inhibitory surround demonstrable with stationary flashing stimuli, but this difference between normal and reeler was not apparent with a moving stimulus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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