Receptive field properties of neurons in area V3 of macaque monkey extrastriate cortex

Receptive field properties of 147 neurons histologically verified to be located in area V3 were investigated during semichronic recording from paralyzed anesthetized macaque monkeys. Quantitative analyses were made of neuron selectivities for direction, orientation, speed, binocular disparity, and color. The majority of neurons in V3 (76%) were strongly orientation selective; 40% demonstrated strong direction selectivity. Most cells were tuned for stimulus speed and almost half showed optimum responses at 16 degrees/s. The distribution of optimum speeds ranged primarily from 4 to 32 degrees/s. Several cells in V3 displayed multi-peaked orientation- and/or direction-tuning curves. These cells had two or more narrowly tuned peaks that were not co-axial. In some ways, they resemble higher-order hypercomplex cells of cat area 19 and may subserve a higher level of form or motion analysis than is seen at antecedent visual areas. Roughly half (45%) of the cells were selective for binocular disparity. Approximately half of these were tuned excitatory in that they showed weak responses when tested through either eye alone, but showed strong binocular facilitation centered on the fixation plane. The other disparity-selective cells were tuned inhibitory or asymmetric in their responses in front and behind the fixation plane. Contrary to previous reports, approximately 20% of the neurons in V3 were color selective in terms of showing a severalfold greater response to the best monochromatic wavelength compared with the worst. Color-tuning curves of the subset of color selective cells had, on average, a full bandwidth at half maximum response of 80-100 nm. A comparison of the receptive field properties of neurons in V3 to those in other areas of visual cortex suggests that V3, like MT, is well suited for the analysis of several aspects of stimulus motion. V3 may also be involved in some aspects of form analysis, particularly at low contrast levels. Comparison with area VP, a thin strip of cortex anterior to ventral V2, which was previously considered part of V3, indicates that direction selectivity is much more prevalent in V3 than in VP. Conversely, color-selective cells are the majority in VP but a minority in V3. This suggests that visual information is processed differently in the upper and lower visual fields.

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Receptive-field properties and neuronal connectivity in striate and parastriate cortex of contour-deprived cats

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1976.39.3.613 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 613-630 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

W. Singer ◽

F. Tretter

Keyword(s):

Electrical Stimulation ◽

Receptive Field ◽

Visual Experience ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Connectivity Pattern ◽

Area 18 ◽

Efferent Connections ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Areas 17 And 18

An attempt was made to relate the alterations of cortical receptive fields as they result from binocular visual deprivation to changes in afferent, intrinsic, and efferent connections of the striate and parastriate cortex. The experiments were performed in cats aged at least 1 jr with their eyelids sutured closed from birth.The results of the receptive-field analysis in A17 confirmed the reduction of light-responsive cells, the occasional incongruity of receptive-field properties in the two eyes, and to some extent also the loss of orientation and direction selectivity as reported previously. Other properties common to numerous deprived receptive fields were the lack of sharp inhibitory sidebands and the sometimes exceedingly large size of the receptive fields. Qualitatively as well as quantitatively, similar alterations were observed in area 18. A rather high percentage of cells in both areas had, however, preserved at least some orientation preference, and a few receptive fields had tuning properties comparable to those in normal cats. The ability of area 18 cells in normal cats to respond to much higher stimulus velocities than area 17 cells was not influenced by deprivation.The results obtained with electrical stimulation suggest two main deprivation effects: 1) A marked decrease in the safety factor of retinothalamic and thalamocortical transmission. 2) A clear decrease in efficiency of intracortical inhibition. But the electrical stimulation data also show that none of the basic principles of afferent, intrinsic, and efferent connectivity is lost or changed by deprivation. The conduction velocities in the subcortical afferents and the differentiation of the afferents to areas 17 and 18 into slow- and fast-conducting projection systems remain unaltered. Intrinsic excitatory connections remain functional; this is also true for the disynaptic inhibitory pathways activated preferentially by the fast-conducting thalamocortical projection. The laminar distribution of cells with monosynaptic versus polsynaptic excitatory connections is similar to that in normal cats. Neurons with corticofugal axons remain functionally connected and show the same connectivity pattern as those in normal cats. The nonspecific activation system from the mesencephalic reticular formation also remains functioning both at the thalamic and the cortical level.We conclude from these and several other observations that most, if not all, afferent, intrinsic, and efferent connections of areas 17 and 18 are specified from birth and depend only little on visual experience. This predetermined structural plan, however, allows for some freedom in the domain of orientation tuning, binocular correspondence, and retinotopy which is specified only when visual experience is possible.

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Precise Alignment of Micromachined Electrode Arrays With V1 Functional Maps

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00120.2007 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 97 (5) ◽

pp. 3781-3789 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ian Nauhaus ◽

Dario L. Ringach

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Electrode Array ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Orientation Tuning ◽

Feedback Signal ◽

Electrode Arrays ◽

Tuning Curves ◽

Alignment Procedure ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Orientation Maps

Recent theoretical models of primary visual cortex predict a relationship between receptive field properties and the location of the neuron within the orientation maps. Testing these predictions requires the development of new methods that allow the recording of single units at various locations across the orientation map. Here we present a novel technique for the precise alignment of functional maps and array recordings. Our strategy consists of first measuring the orientation maps in V1 using intrinsic optical imaging. A micromachined electrode array is subsequently implanted in the same patch of cortex for electrophysiological recordings, including the measurement of orientation tuning curves. The location of the array within the map is obtained by finding the position that maximizes the agreement between the preferred orientations measured electrically and optically. Experimental results of the alignment procedure from two implementations in monkey V1 are presented. The estimated accuracy of the procedure is evaluated using computer simulations. The methodology should prove useful in studying how signals from the local neighborhood of a neuron, thought to provide a dominant feedback signal, shape the receptive field properties in V1.

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Disparity-Selective Neurons in Area V4 of Macaque Monkeys

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00780.2000 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 87 (4) ◽

pp. 1960-1973 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Masayuki Watanabe ◽

Hiroki Tanaka ◽

Takanori Uka ◽

Ichiro Fujita

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Binocular Disparity ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Intermediate Stage ◽

Visual Pathway ◽

Inferior Temporal Cortex ◽

Tuning Curves ◽

Area V4 ◽

Ventral Visual Pathway ◽

V4 Neurons

Area V4 is an intermediate stage of the ventral visual pathway providing major input to the final stages in the inferior temporal cortex (IT). This pathway is involved in the processing of shape, color, and texture. IT neurons are also sensitive to horizontal binocular disparity, suggesting that binocular disparity is processed along the ventral visual pathway. In the present study, we examined the processing of binocular disparity information by V4 neurons. We recorded responses of V4 neurons to binocularly disparate stimuli. A population of V4 neurons modified their responses according to changes of stimulus disparity; neither monocular responses nor eye movements could account for this modulation. Disparity-tuning curves were similar for different locations within a neuron's receptive field. Neighboring neurons recorded using a single electrode displayed similar disparity-tuning properties. These findings indicate that a population of V4 neurons is selective for binocular disparity, invariant for the position of the stimulus within the receptive field. The finding that V4 neurons with similar disparity selectivity are clustered suggests the existence of functional modules for disparity processing in V4.

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Cat area 17. I. Pattern of thalamic control of cortical layers

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1986.56.4.1062 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 1062-1073 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

J. G. Malpeli ◽

C. Lee ◽

H. D. Schwark ◽

T. G. Weyand

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Orientation Selectivity ◽

The Other ◽

Area 17 ◽

Cortical Layers ◽

Reversible Inactivation ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Contralateral Eye ◽

Necessary And Sufficient

Reversible inactivation of individual layers of the cat lateral geniculate and medial interlaminar nuclei was used to investigate the necessary and sufficient inputs for maintaining visually driven activity and receptive field properties in area 17. Neither orientation selectivity nor direction selectivity depends on any individual geniculate layer. We identified two groups of cortical layers on the basis of the pattern of thalamic inputs providing visual driving through the contralateral eye. One group, consisting of layers 4 and 6, has geniculate layer A as its only necessary and sufficient input. The other, consisting of supragranular layers, integrates at least two sufficient thalamic inputs, one of which is layer A. Several major receptive field properties are independently generated in these two groups of layers.

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Human primary visual cortex shows larger population receptive fields for binocular disparity-defined stimuli

Brain Structure and Function ◽

10.1007/s00429-021-02351-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ivan Alvarez ◽

Samuel A. Hurley ◽

Andrew J. Parker ◽

Holly Bridge

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Binocular Disparity ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Stereoscopic Vision ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Visual Areas ◽

Electrophysiological Studies ◽

Specific Stimulation

AbstractThe visual perception of 3D depth is underpinned by the brain’s ability to combine signals from the left and right eyes to produce a neural representation of binocular disparity for perception and behaviour. Electrophysiological studies of binocular disparity over the past 2 decades have investigated the computational role of neurons in area V1 for binocular combination, while more recent neuroimaging investigations have focused on identifying specific roles for different extrastriate visual areas in depth perception. Here we investigate the population receptive field properties of neural responses to binocular information in striate and extrastriate cortical visual areas using ultra-high field fMRI. We measured BOLD fMRI responses while participants viewed retinotopic mapping stimuli defined by different visual properties: contrast, luminance, motion, correlated and anti-correlated stereoscopic disparity. By fitting each condition with a population receptive field model, we compared quantitatively the size of the population receptive field for disparity-specific stimulation. We found larger population receptive fields for disparity compared with contrast and luminance in area V1, the first stage of binocular combination, which likely reflects the binocular integration zone, an interpretation supported by modelling of the binocular energy model. A similar pattern was found in region LOC, where it may reflect the role of disparity as a cue for 3D shape. These findings provide insight into the binocular receptive field properties underlying processing for human stereoscopic vision.

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Human Primary Visual Cortex Shows Larger Population Receptive Fields for Binocular Disparity-Defined Stimuli

10.21203/rs.3.rs-222327/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ivan Alvarez ◽

Samuel Hurley ◽

Andrew John Parker ◽

Holly Bridge

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Binocular Disparity ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Stereoscopic Vision ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Neural Population ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Visual Areas ◽

Electrophysiological Studies

Abstract The visual perception of 3D depth is underpinned by the brain's ability to combine signals from the left and right eyes to produce a neural representation of binocular disparity for perception and behavior. Electrophysiological studies of binocular disparity over the past two decades have investigated the computational role of neurons in area V1 for binocular combination, while more recent neuroimaging investigations have focused on identifying specific roles for different extrastriate visual areas in depth perception. Here we investigate the neural population receptive field properties of responses to binocular information in striate and extrastriate cortical visual areas using ultra-high field fMRI. We measured BOLD fMRI responses while participants viewed retinotopic-mapping stimuli defined by different visual properties: contrast, luminance, motion, correlated and anti-correlated stereoscopic disparity. By fitting each condition with a population receptive field model, we were able to compare quantitatively the size of the population receptive field for disparity-defined vs not disparity-defined stimulation conditions. We found larger population receptive fields for disparity compared to the contrast and luminance stimuli in area V1, the first stage of binocular combination, which likely reflects the binocular integration zone, an interpretation supported by modelling of the binocular energy model. A similar pattern was found in region LOC, where it may reflect the role of disparity as a cue for 3D shape. These findings provide insight into the binocular receptive field properties underlying processing for human stereoscopic vision.

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The Role of V1 Surround Suppression in MT Motion Integration

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00654.2009 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 103 (6) ◽

pp. 3123-3138 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

James M. G. Tsui ◽

J. Nicholas Hunter ◽

Richard T. Born ◽

Christopher C. Pack

Keyword(s):

Cortical Neurons ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Macaque Monkey ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Complex Stimulus ◽

Specific Stimulus ◽

Tuning Curves ◽

Mt Neurons ◽

Stimulus Features

Neurons in the primate extrastriate cortex are highly selective for complex stimulus features such as faces, objects, and motion patterns. One explanation for this selectivity is that neurons in these areas carry out sophisticated computations on the outputs of lower-level areas such as primary visual cortex (V1), where neuronal selectivity is often modeled in terms of linear spatiotemporal filters. However, it has long been known that such simple V1 models are incomplete because they fail to capture important nonlinearities that can substantially alter neuronal selectivity for specific stimulus features. Thus a key step in understanding the function of higher cortical areas is the development of realistic models of their V1 inputs. We have addressed this issue by constructing a computational model of the V1 neurons that provide the strongest input to extrastriate cortical middle temporal (MT) area. We find that a modest elaboration to the standard model of V1 direction selectivity generates model neurons with strong end-stopping, a property that is also found in the V1 layers that provide input to MT. With this computational feature in place, the seemingly complex properties of MT neurons can be simulated by assuming that they perform a simple nonlinear summation of their inputs. The resulting model, which has a very small number of free parameters, can simulate many of the diverse properties of MT neurons. In particular, we simulate the invariance of MT tuning curves to the orientation and length of tilted bar stimuli, as well as the accompanying temporal dynamics. We also show how this property relates to the continuum from component to pattern selectivity observed when MT neurons are tested with plaids. Finally, we confirm several key predictions of the model by recording from MT neurons in the alert macaque monkey. Overall our results demonstrate that many of the seemingly complex computations carried out by high-level cortical neurons can in principle be understood by examining the properties of their inputs.

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Visual responsiveness and direction selectivity of cells in area 18 during local reversible inactivation of area 17 in cats

Visual Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/s0952523800001826 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 581-593 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

C. Casanova ◽

Y. Michaud ◽

C. Morin ◽

P.A. McKinley ◽

S. Molotchnikoff

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Specific Effect ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Area 17 ◽

Visual Responses ◽

Drug Injection ◽

Area 18 ◽

Preferred Direction ◽

Receptive Field Properties ◽

Number Of Cells

AbstractWe have investigated the effects of inactivation of localized sites in area 17 on the visual responses of cells in visuotopically corresponding regions of area 18. Experiments were performed on adult normal cats. The striate cortex was inactivated by the injection of nanoliters of lidocaine hydrochloride or of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) dissolved in a staining solution. Responses of the simple and complex cells of area 18 to optimally oriented light and dark bars moving in the two directions of motion were recorded before, during, and after the drug injection. Two main effects are described.First, for a substantial number of cells, the drug injection provoked an overall reduction of the cell's visual responses. This nonspecific effect largely predominated in the complex cell family (76% of the units affected). This effect is consistent with the presence of long-range excitatory connections in the visual cortex.Second, the inactivation of area 17 could affect specific receptive-field properties of cells in area 18. The main specific effect was a loss of direction selectivity of a number of cells in area 18, mainly in the simple family (more than 53% of the units affected). The change in direction selectivity comes either from a disinhibitory effect in the nonpreferred direction or from a reduction of response in the preferred direction. It is proposed that the disinhibitory effects were mediated by inhibitory interneurones within area 18. In a very few cases, the change of directional preference was associated with a modification of the cell's response profile.These results showed that the signals from area 17 are necessary to drive a number of units in area 18, and that area 17 can contribute to, or at least modulate, the receptive-field properties of a large number of cells in the parastriate area.

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Simulated Optic Flow and Extrastriate Cortex. II. Responses to Bar Versus Large-Field Stimuli

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1997.77.2.562 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 77 (2) ◽

pp. 562-570 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Kathleen Mulligan ◽

Jong-Nam Kim ◽

Helen Sherk

Keyword(s):

Optic Flow ◽

Preceding Paper ◽

Forward Direction ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Image Motion ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Large Field ◽

Response Properties ◽

Tuning Curves ◽

Direction Tuning

Mulligan, Kathleen, Jong-Nam Kim, and Helen Sherk. Simulated optic flow and extrastriate cortex. II. Responses to bar versus large-field stimuli. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 562–570, 1997. In the preceding paper we described the responses of cells in the cat's lateral suprasylvian visual area (LS) to large-field optic flow and texture movies. To assess response properties such as direction selectivity, cells were also tested with moving bar stimuli. We expected that there would be good agreement between response properties elicited with optic flow movies and those revealed with bar stimuli. We first asked how well bar response properties predicted responsiveness to optic flow movies. There was no correlation between responsiveness to movies and the degree of end-stopping, length summation, or preference for bars that accelerated and expanded. We then considered only the 322 cells that responded to both bars and optic flow or texture movies and asked how well the strength of their response to movies could be predicted from the direction-tuning curves generated with bar stimuli. One-third of these cells responded much more strongly to movies than could be predicted from their direction-tuning curves. Generally, such cells were rather well tuned for the direction of bar motion and preferred a direction substantially different from what they saw in optic flow movies. Optic flow movies shown in the forward direction were the most effective variety of movie for two-thirds of these cells. To see whether this outcome stemmed from differential direction tuning for bars and large multielement displays, in a second series of experiments we compared direction tuning for bars and large-field texture movies. Many cells showed substantially different direction tuning for the two kinds of stimulus: almost [Formula: see text] of 409 cells had tuning curves that overlapped each other by <50%. But only a small number of cells (<10%) responded much better to texture movies than to bars in the predominant direction of image motion in optic flow movies. This result, like that reported in the preceding paper, suggests that cells in LS respond differently to optic flow than to texture displays lacking optic flow motion cues.

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