Receptive field

About: Receptive field is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8537 publications have been published within this topic receiving 596428 citations.

Visual resolution and receptive field size: examination of two kinds of cat retinal ganglion cell

Abstract: Intraocular recordings from brisk-sustained and brisk-transient ganglion cells in the cat's retina revealed a systematic increase in center size and decrease in spatial cut-off frequency with increasing distance from the area centralis. At any one eccentricity sizes of the centers of sustained and transient cells did not overlap, and the variation in cut-off frequency for each class was constrained to about one-half octave.

Single- and multi-whisker channels in the ascending projections from the principal trigeminal nucleus in the rat.

Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between axonal projections and receptive field properties of whisker-sensitive cells in the principal trigeminal sensory nucleus of the rat. The labeling of small groups of trigeminothalamic axons with biotinylated dextran amine disclosed two broad classes of axons; a majority of fibers (68%; n = 107) project to a single barreloid of the ventral posteromedial nucleus, and the remaining group includes axons that innervate both the posterior group of the thalamus and the tectum. Additional terminal sites for axons of this latter group may include the pretectum, the zona incerta, the medial part of the medial geniculate nucleus, and the ventral posteromedial nucleus. Corresponding to these two classes of fibers, 67% of the cells in the principal trigeminal nucleus (n = 313) have single-whisker receptive fields, whereas the rest of the population have receptive fields composed of multiple whiskers. The tonic or phasic properties of the responses apparently bear no relation to the axonal projection patterns. Solid retrograde labeling of cells that project to the ventral posteromedial nucleus and intracellular staining revealed that single-whisker cells have small somata and narrow, barrelette-bounded dendritic trees. In contrast, multi-whisker neurons have large multipolar somata, expansive dendritic trees, and many respond antidromically to stimulation of the superior colliculus. Together, these results provide evidence for two main channels of vibrissal information: a single-whisker channel that links trigeminal barrelettes to their corresponding barreloids, and a multi-whisker channel that distributes principally in the posterior group and tectum.

Pharmacological induction of use-dependent receptive field modifications in the visual cortex.

Abstract: Lasting modifications of the receptive fields of neurons in the visual cortex can be induced by pairing visual stimuli with iontophoretic application of the neuromodulators acetylcholine and noradrenaline or the excitatory amino acids N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and L-glutamate. The modifications are obtained in less than 1 hour and persist for more than 40 minutes. Thus, acetylcholine and norepinephrine have a permissive role in use-dependent neuronal plasticity. These results support the notion of a postsynaptic threshold for neuronal malleability that differs from that of sodium-dependent action potentials.

Alpha and delta ganglion cells in the rat retina

Abstract: In the rat retina a distinctive class of large ganglion cell was demonstrated by intracellular staining with Lucifer Yellow and with reduced silver staining. They are referred to as alpha cells because they resemble the alpha cells of other mammalian retinae. A second class, called delta cells, is also described. Both classes belong to the type I group defined by Perry (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. [Biol.] 204:363-375, '79). The dendritic trees of both classes stratify in either an inner or outer lamina of the inner plexiform layer which presumably corresponds to an on/off dichotomy in the response to light. Rat alpha cells constitute 2-4% of all ganglion cells, and their density, size, and detailed morphological appearance change with retinal location. Inner and outer stratifying alpha cells of the rat show significant differences compared to those of other mammals. In central retina (at the large cell density maximum) the densities and dendritic field sizes of inner and outer alpha cells are approximately equal. However, in peripheral retina outer alpha cells are up to three times more numerous and have dendritic field areas only one-third the size of those of the inner alpha cells. The maximal density is about 110 alpha cells/mm2; peripheral densities are about 30/mm2. The smallest central dendritic field diameters are 220 microns. Peripheral dendritic field diameters are 350-550 microns for outer and 570-790 microns for inner alpha cells. Each subpopulation is distributed in a regular mosaic, and the territorial arrangement of the dendritic fields provides a homogeneous coverage of the retina. The dendritic coverage is three- to 3.6-fold for each subpopulation, irrespective of their other quantitative differences. Eccentricity-dependent receptive field sizes of the alpha cells are predicted from the morphological data.

The organization of thalamocortical relay neurons in the rat ventrobasal complex studied by the retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase

Abstract: The organization of thalamocortical relay neurons in the thalamic ventrobasal complex (VB) of the rat was investigated by the use of the retrograde axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Injections of HRP into somatosensory cortex (SI) resulted in a distinctive gradient of neuronal and non-neuronal HRP reaction product. Electrophysiologically characterized points of SI injected with small volumes of HRP labeled a sector of neurons in VB ipsilateral to the injection. This zone of labeled neurons consisted of a complex curvilinear array or lamina with a rostral hollow or solid expansion of densely packed HRP positive neurons which continues caudally as a less dense tapering wing. Despite this complex arrangement, an approximate pattern of somatotopy was determined indicating the direction of shifts in peripheral receptive fields moving in any axis of VB. The number of labeled neurons projecting upon a point in SI was also determined. Injections of the cortical vibrissae, face and forepaw representations labeled a greater number of neurons in VB per unit area of cortex than did injections in the hindlimb or body representations. The total number of HRP positive neurons in VB increased proportionately with areal increase of the HRP injections into overlapping cortical representations. The number of HRP positive neurons in the rostral half of the laminae increased almost linearly with the area of injection, while the number of HRP positive neurons in the caudal half of the laminae showed relatively smaller increases.