Orientation column

About: Orientation column is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1142 publications have been published within this topic receiving 130169 citations.

Optogenetic assessment of horizontal interactions in primary visual cortex.

Abstract: Columnar organization of orientation selectivity and clustered horizontal connections linking orientation columns are two of the distinctive organizational features of primary visual cortex in many mammalian species. However, the functional role of these connections has been harder to characterize. Here we examine the extent and nature of horizontal interactions in V1 of the tree shrew using optical imaging of intrinsic signals, optogenetic stimulation, and multi-unit recording. Surprisingly, we find the effects of optogenetic stimulation depend primarily on distance and not on the specific orientation domains or axes in the cortex, which are stimulated. In addition, across a wide range of variation in both visual and optogenetic stimulation we find linear addition of the two inputs. These results emphasize that the cortex provides a rich substrate for functional interactions that are not limited to the orientation-specific interactions predicted by the monosynaptic distribution of horizontal connections.

Neurophysiological mechanisms of recovery from visual cortex damage in cats: properties of lateral suprasylvian visual area neurons following behavioral recovery.

Abstract: Damage to visual cortical areas 17, 18, and 19 in the cat produces severe and long-lasting deficits in performance of form and pattern discriminations. However, with extensive retraining the animals are able to recover their ability to discriminate form and pattern stimuli. Recent behavioral experiments from this laboratory have shown that a nearby region of cortex, the lateral suprasylvian visual area (LS area), plays an important role in this recovery (Wood et al., 1974; Baumann and Spear, 1977b). The present experiment investigated the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of the recovery by recording from single neurons in the LS area of cats which had recovered from long-term visual cortex damage. Five adult cats received bilateral removal of areas 17, 18, and 19. They were then trained to criterion on two-choice brightness, form, and pattern discriminations. Recording from LS area neurons was carried out after the behavioral training, from 3 to 7 months after the visual cortex lesions. The properties of these neurons were compared to those of LS area neurons in normal cats (Spear and Baumann, 1975) and in cats with acute or short-term visual cortex damage and no behavioral recovery (Spear and Baumann, 1979). The results showed that all of the changes from normal which were produced by acute visual cortex damage were also present after the behavioral recovery. Moreover, all of the response properties of LS area neurons which remain after acute visual cortex damage were present in similar form after the behavioral recovery. There was no evidence for any functional reorganization in the LS area concomitant with its role in the behavioral recovery. These results suggest that functional reorganization plays little or no role in recovery from visual cortex damage in adult cats. Rather, the recovery of form and pattern discrimination ability appears to be based upon the functioning of residual neural processes in the LS area which remain after the visual cortex damage.

When the auditory cortex turns visual.

Abstract: We studied visually guided behavior and the visual response properties of single auditory cortex (A1) neurons in neonatally operated hamsters with surgically induced, permanent, ectopic retinal projections to auditory thalamic nuclei and to visual thalamic nuclei which normally receive little direct retinal input. The surgically induced retino-thalamo-cortical pathways can mediate visual guided behaviors whose normal substrate, the pathway from the retina to the primary visual cortex via the primary thalamic visual nucleus, is missing. The visually evoked response properties of A1 neurons resemble in many respects those of neurons in V1 of normal hamsters: many A1 neurons have well-defined visual receptive fields and preferences for orientation or direction of movement. In addition, some visually responsive cells in A1 are bimodal--they also respond to auditory stimuli. The visually responsive neurons in A1 probably account for the capacity of the auditory cortex to mediate visual behavior in 'rewired hamsters'.

Fluoro-Gold tracing of zinc-containing afferent connections in the mouse visual cortices.

Abstract: To identify zinc-containing projections to the visual areas, we injected Fluoro-Gold into the occipital cortex of the mouse. Five days later, the mice underwent an intravital selenium-labeling procedure to demonstrate the somata of neurons that give rise to zinc-containing boutons. Numerous double-labeled cells were seen in the ipsi- and contralateral primary (layers II/III and VI), and secondary visual cortices (layers II/III and VI). A few double-labeled cells were apparent in other cortical areas concerned with visual processing: the orbital cortex (layers II and III), the posterior portion of the medial agranular frontal cortex (layer V/VI border), and the temporal cortex (layer VI). The cingulate, retrosplenial, perirhinal, and lateral entorhinal cortices had lamina projecting to the visual cortex and separate lamina harboring zinc-containing cells. A spatial segregation of fluorescent and zinc-containing neurons was also seen in the claustrum. This integration or segregation of projecting and zinc-containing neurons may reflect the function of the cortical areas. N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor function is antagonized by physiological concentrations of zinc in vitro. It is proposed that zinc-positive projections from areas that perform basic visual functions are less likely to be modified by N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-mediated processes than the zinc-negative connections from associational areas.

Demonstration of Tuning to Stimulus Orientation in the Human Visual Cortex: A High-Resolution fMRI Study with a Novel Continuous and Periodic Stimulation Paradigm

Abstract: Cells in the animal early visual cortex are sensitive to contour orientations and form repeated structures known as orientation columns. At the behavioral level, there exist 2 well-known global biases in orientation perception (oblique effect and radial bias) in both animals and humans. However, their neural bases are still under debate. To unveil how these behavioral biases are achieved in the early visual cortex, we conducted high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments with a novel continuous and periodic stimulation paradigm. By inserting resting recovery periods between successive stimulation periods and introducing a pair of orthogonal stimulation conditions that differed by 90° continuously, we focused on analyzing a blood oxygenation leveldependent response modulated by the change in stimulus orientation and reliably extracted orientation preferences of single voxels. We found that there are more voxels preferring horizontal and vertical orientations, a physiological substrate underlying the oblique effect, and that these over-representations of horizontal and vertical orientations are prevalent in the cortical regions near the horizontal- and vertical-meridian representations, a phenomenon related to the radial bias. Behaviorally, we also confirmed that there exists perceptual superiority for horizontal and vertical orientations around horizontal and vertical meridians, respectively. Our results, thus, refined the neural mechanisms of these 2 global biases in orientation perception.