Chronic recordings from single sites of kitten striate cortex during experience-dependent modifications of receptive-field properties

1989 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mioche ◽  
W. Singer
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Monocular Deprivation ◽  
Binocular Summation ◽  
Moderate Increase ◽  
Receptive Field Properties ◽  
Excitatory Responses

1. With the use of chronically implanted floating microelectrodes, we obtained simultaneous single-unit recordings from multiple sites in the kitten striate cortex and followed experience-dependent modifications of receptive-field properties. For induction of experimental modifications, we used the paradigm of monocular deprivation and reverse occlusion. Kittens were implanted when 4-5 wk old. During the following 2 days, receptive-field properties of the recorded units were determined once under light ketamine anesthesia and repeatedly while the kittens were awake and only lightly restrained. Subsequently, one eye was patched, and the resulting changes in neuronal eye preference were followed by repeated measurements of response properties. For investigation of the effects of reverse occlusion, the deprived eye was opened and the previously open eye closed when the neurons had become unresponsive to the initially deprived eye. Alternatively, kittens were monocularly deprived for 1 wk by lid suture before implantation. The closed eye was then opened, the other eye patched, and the effects of reverse occlusion were studied for up to 1 wk by repeated measurements of receptive-field properties. 2. The earliest effect of monocular deprivation was the disappearance of binocular summation, i.e., binocular responses ceased to be superior over monocular responses. Overt changes of ocular dominance were observed as early as 6 h after the beginning of monocular deprivation. These consisted of a gradual decrease of the excitatory response to deprived eye stimulation and, on occasions, of an additional moderate increase of responses to the normal eye. A complete loss of excitatory responses to deprived-eye stimulation was seen as early as 12 h after occlusion. In numerous cells, however, stimulation of the deprived eye continued to evoke inhibitory responses even after excitatory responses had vanished completely. During this shift in ocularity, neurons preserved their orientation and direction selectively. 3. The minimal time required for the manifestation of ocular dominance changes was similar regardless of whether the animals were stimulated continuously or were asleep part of the time, suggesting the existence of an experience-independent consolidation period for ocular dominance changes. 4. The first change after reverse occlusion was a reduction of the response to the newly deprived eye. The time course of this inactivation was similar to that observed after initial deprivation, whereas the recovery of responses to the previously deprived eye had a considerably slower time course.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Postcritical-period reversal of effects of monocular deprivation on striate cortex cells in the cat

1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. E. Kratz ◽  
P. D. Spear
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Monocular Deprivation ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Stimulation Of

1. The possibility that effects of monocular deprivation on cat striate cortex could be reversed after the developmental critical period by removal of the normal eye was investigated. In addition, the time course of any postcriticalperiod reversal was studied. Single-unit recording was conducted in the striate cortex of kittens anesthetized with nitrous oxide.2. Six control kittens were raised with monocular lid suture until they were 4-8 mo old (group MD). In agreement with previous investigators, from 0-10% of the striate cortex cells could be driven by visual stimulation of the deprived eye in these kittens.3. Eleven kittens were raised with monocular lid suture until they were 4-5 mo old, at which time the normal eye was enucleated. In five of these (group MD-DE-immediate), recording was conducted in striate cortex on the day of the enucleation. In these animals, 29-39% of the striate cortex cells could be driven by the deprived eye. In four kittens (group MD-DE-3 mo), the deprived eye remained closed for an additional 3 mo before recording was conducted. In these animals, 17-45% of the striate cortex cells could be driven by the deprived eye. In two kittens (group MD-DE greater than 12 mo), the deprived eye remained closed for 14-15 mo after the normal eye was enucleated. In these kittens, 26-40% of the striate cortex cells could be driven by the deprived eye. Thus, removal of the normal eye after the critical period in monocularly drprived kittens results in a rapid increase in the percent of striate cortex cells that can be driven by visual stimulation of the deprived eye, and there is no further increase in responsiveness over a period of more than a year.4. The receptive-field properties of the cells which responded to the deprived eye following enucleation of the normal eye were usually abnormal; 61% of them had nonspecific receptive fields, 39% of the responsive cells were direction selective, and only 12% were both direction and orientation selective.5. The increase in responsive cells was observed in the striate cortex of both hemispheres. However, the increase was greater in the hemisphere contralateral to the deprived eye. The responsive cells tended to occur in clusters of two to four adjacent cells separated by regions containing nonresponsive cells. These clusters were not related to the horizontal cortical layers; however, they may be related to the ocular dominance columns in striate cortex.6. Several mechanisms were considered for the present findings, including neuronal sprouting, denervation supersensitivity, and release from inhibition. It was suggested that the increased responsiveness to the deprived eye was probably not the result of rapid sprouting in the 4- to 5-mo-old kittens. If this is so, then the results indicate that functional connections from the deprived layers of the DLG to the striate cortex remain following rearing with monocular deprivation...

Ferrier lecture - Functional architecture of macaque monkey visual cortex

1977 ◽  
Vol 198 (1130) ◽  
pp. 1-59 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Area 17 ◽  
Orientation Specificity

Of the many possible functions of the macaque monkey primary visual cortex (striate cortex, area 17) two are now fairly well understood. First, the incoming information from the lateral geniculate bodies is rearranged so that most cells in the striate cortex respond to specifically oriented line segments, and, second, information originating from the two eyes converges upon single cells. The rearrangement and convergence do not take place immediately, however: in layer IVc, where the bulk of the afferents terminate, virtually all cells have fields with circular symmetry and are strictly monocular, driven from the left eye or from the right, but not both; at subsequent stages, in layers above and below IVc, most cells show orientation specificity, and about half are binocular. In a binocular cell the receptive fields in the two eyes are on corresponding regions in the two retinas and are identical in structure, but one eye is usually more effective than the other in influencing the cell; all shades of ocular dominance are seen. These two functions are strongly reflected in the architecture of the cortex, in that cells with common physiological properties are grouped together in vertically organized systems of columns. In an ocular dominance column all cells respond preferentially to the same eye. By four independent anatomical methods it has been shown that these columns have the form of vertically disposed alternating left-eye and right-eye slabs, which in horizontal section form alternating stripes about 400 μm thick, with occasional bifurcations and blind endings. Cells of like orientation specificity are known from physiological recordings to be similarly grouped in much narrower vertical sheeet-like aggregations, stacked in orderly sequences so that on traversing the cortex tangentially one normally encounters a succession of small shifts in orientation, clockwise or counterclockwise; a 1 mm traverse is usually accompanied by one or several full rotations through 180°, broken at times by reversals in direction of rotation and occasionally by large abrupt shifts. A full complement of columns, of either type, left-plus-right eye or a complete 180° sequence, is termed a hypercolumn. Columns (and hence hypercolumns) have roughly the same width throughout the binocular part of the cortex. The two independent systems of hypercolumns are engrafted upon the well known topographic representation of the visual field. The receptive fields mapped in a vertical penetration through cortex show a scatter in position roughly equal to the average size of the fields themselves, and the area thus covered, the aggregate receptive field, increases with distance from the fovea. A parallel increase is seen in reciprocal magnification (the number of degrees of visual field corresponding to 1 mm of cortex). Over most or all of the striate cortex a movement of 1-2 mm, traversing several hypercolumns, is accompanied by a movement through the visual field about equal in size to the local aggregate receptive field. Thus any 1-2 mm block of cortex contains roughly the machinery needed to subserve an aggregate receptive field. In the cortex the fall-off in detail with which the visual field is analysed, as one moves out from the foveal area, is accompanied not by a reduction in thickness of layers, as is found in the retina, but by a reduction in the area of cortex (and hence the number of columnar units) devoted to a given amount of visual field: unlike the retina, the striate cortex is virtually uniform morphologically but varies in magnification. In most respects the above description fits the newborn monkey just as well as the adult, suggesting that area 17 is largely genetically programmed. The ocular dominance columns, however, are not fully developed at birth, since the geniculate terminals belonging to one eye occupy layer IVc throughout its length, segregating out into separate columns only after about the first 6 weeks, whether or not the animal has visual experience. If one eye is sutured closed during this early period the columns belonging to that eye become shrunken and their companions correspondingly expanded. This would seem to be at least in part the result of interference with normal maturation, though sprouting and retraction of axon terminals are not excluded.

Receptive-field characteristics of neurons in cat striate cortex: Changes with visual field eccentricity

1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Wilson ◽  
S. M. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Orientation Selectivity ◽  
Simple Cells ◽  
Complex Cells ◽  
Cat Striate Cortex

1. Receptive-field properties of 214 neurons from cat striate cortex were studied with particular emphasis on: a) classification, b) field size, c) orientation selectivity, d) direction selectivity, e) speed selectivity, and f) ocular dominance. We studied receptive fields located throughtout the visual field, including the monocular segment, to determine how receptivefield properties changed with eccentricity in the visual field.2. We classified 98 cells as "simple," 80 as "complex," 21 as "hypercomplex," and 15 in other categories. The proportion of complex cells relative to simple cells increased monotonically with receptive-field eccenticity.3. Direction selectivity and preferred orientation did not measurably change with eccentricity. Through most of the binocular segment, this was also true for ocular dominance; however, at the edge of the binocular segment, there were more fields dominated by the contralateral eye.4. Cells had larger receptive fields, less orientation selectivity, and higher preferred speeds with increasing eccentricity. However, these changes were considerably more pronounced for complex than for simple cells.5. These data suggest that simple and complex cells analyze different aspects of a visual stimulus, and we provide a hypothesis which suggests that simple cells analyze input typically from one (or a few) geniculate neurons, while complex cells receive input from a larger region of geniculate neurons. On average, this region is invariant with eccentricity and, due to a changing magnification factor, complex fields increase in size with eccentricity much more than do simple cells. For complex cells, computations of this geniculate region transformed to cortical space provide a cortical extent equal to the spread of pyramidal cell basal dendrites.

Recovery from effects of brief monocular deprivation in the kitten

1984 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 538-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Malach ◽  
R. Ebert ◽  
R. C. Van Sluyters
Keyword(s):  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Complete Recovery ◽  
Monocular Deprivation ◽  
Cortical Input ◽  
Binocular Function ◽  
Normal Binocular Vision

The potential for recovery from the cortical effects of monocular deprivation (MD) was studied in kittens that were briefly deprived and then exposed to various periods of normal binocular vision. In eight kittens, recordings from the hemisphere ipsilateral to the deprived eye revealed that at 4 wk of age, exposure to 12 h of MD (six 2-h sessions spread over 2 days) was sufficient to cause a massive shift in the ocular dominance of striate cortex neurons in favor of the nondeprived eye. Six of these MD kittens were allowed 3 wk of normal binocular vision and then recorded from a second time to assess the extent to which their cortex could recover from the effects of this brief period of deprivation. Data from these animals indicated that now approximately equal numbers of cortical neurons were dominated by each eye and that, while the overall level of binocularity was somewhat lower than that found in normally reared animals, the majority of cells had regained functional binocular connections. The possibility that cortical binocularity could recover even further was explored by allowing four of these six MD kittens to experience an additional 4 wk of binocular vision and then recording from them a third time. These final recordings indicated that following a total of 7 wk of binocular vision, the level of cortical binocularity was no different from that found in normally reared animals. Having demonstrated that normal binocular function can be restored to a cortex in which it had been severely disrupted, we next attempted to characterize the earliest stages of this recovery process by examining the pattern of cortical binocularity in 10 MD kittens that were allowed to experience either 6 or 12 h of binocular vision (given over 1 or 2 days, respectively). Our results indicate that, during the initial day of binocular vision, recovery seems to involve a noncompetitive expansion of functional cortical input from the deprived eye, which joins with input from the nondeprived eye in driving cortical neurons. The level of cortical binocularity continues to increase during the next day of binocular vision, but now there is also a small increase in the proportion of cells driven exclusively by the initially deprived eye--suggesting that there may be an additional competitive component to the early stages of recovery. The results of this study complement our previous report of complete recovery of binocularity following exposure to a brief period of optically induced strabismus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Receptive field properties of single units in the opossum striate cortex

1976 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.E. Rocha-Miranda ◽  
R. Linden ◽  
E. Volchan ◽  
R. Lent ◽  
R.A. Bombardieri
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Single Units ◽  
Receptive Field Properties

scholarly journals The cortical column: a structure without a function

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1456) ◽  
pp. 837-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan C Horton ◽  
Daniel L Adams
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Ocular Dominance ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Cortical Column ◽  
Cortical Function ◽  
Ocular Dominance Columns ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Architectural Feature ◽  
Joint Receptors

This year, the field of neuroscience celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mountcastle's discovery of the cortical column. In this review, we summarize half a century of research and come to the disappointing realization that the column may have no function. Originally, it was described as a discrete structure, spanning the layers of the somatosensory cortex, which contains cells responsive to only a single modality, such as deep joint receptors or cutaneous receptors. Subsequently, examples of columns have been uncovered in numerous cortical areas, expanding the original concept to embrace a variety of different structures and principles. A ‘column’ now refers to cells in any vertical cluster that share the same tuning for any given receptive field attribute. In striate cortex, for example, cells with the same eye preference are grouped into ocular dominance columns. Unaccountably, ocular dominance columns are present in some species, but not others. In principle, it should be possible to determine their function by searching for species differences in visual performance that correlate with their presence or absence. Unfortunately, this approach has been to no avail; no visual faculty has emerged that appears to require ocular dominance columns. Moreover, recent evidence has shown that the expression of ocular dominance columns can be highly variable among members of the same species, or even in different portions of the visual cortex in the same individual. These observations deal a fatal blow to the idea that ocular dominance columns serve a purpose. More broadly, the term ‘column’ also denotes the periodic termination of anatomical projections within or between cortical areas. In many instances, periodic projections have a consistent relationship with some architectural feature, such as the cytochrome oxidase patches in V1 or the stripes in V2. These tissue compartments appear to divide cells with different receptive field properties into distinct processing streams. However, it is unclear what advantage, if any, is conveyed by this form of columnar segregation. Although the column is an attractive concept, it has failed as a unifying principle for understanding cortical function. Unravelling the organization of the cerebral cortex will require a painstaking description of the circuits, projections and response properties peculiar to cells in each of its various areas.

Receptive-field properties of neurons in different laminae of visual cortex of the cat

1978 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 948-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Leventhal ◽  
H. V. Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Spontaneous Discharge ◽  
C Cells ◽  
Receptive Field Properties ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
Y Cells

1. Receptive-field properties of neurons in the different layers of the visual cortex of normal adult cats were analyzed quantitatively. Neurons were classified into one of two groups: 1) S-cells, which have discrete on- and/or off-regions in their receptive fields and possess inhibitory side bands; 2) C-cells, which do not have discrete on- and off-regions in their receptive fields but display an on-off response to flashing stimuli. Neurons of this type rarely display side-band inhibition. 2. As a group, S-cells display lower relative degrees of binocularity and are more selective for stimulus orientation than C-cells. In addition, within a given lamina the S-cells have smaller receptive fields, lower cutoff velocities, lower peak responses to visual stimulation, and lower spontaneous activity than do the C-cells. 3. S-cells in all layers of the cortex display similar orientation sensitivities, mean spontaneous discharge rates, peak response to visual stimulation, and degrees of binocularity. 4. Many of the receptive-field properties of cortical cells vary with laminar location. Receptive-field sizes and cutoff velocities of S-cells and of C-cells are greater in layers V and VI than in layers II-IV. For S-cells, preferred velocities are also greater in layers V and VI than in layers II-IV. Furthermore, C-cells in layers V and VI display high mean spontaneous discharge rates, weak orientation preferences, high relative degrees of binocularity, and higher peak responses to visual stimulation when compared to C-cells in layers II and III. 5. The receptive-field properties of cells in layers V-VI of the striate cortex suggest that most neurons that have their somata in these laminae receive afferents from LGNd Y-cells. Hence, our results suggest that afferents from LGNd Y-cells may play a major part in the cortical control of subcortical visual functions.

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