scholarly journals A global map of orientation tuning in mouse visual cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Fahey ◽  
Taliah Muhammad ◽  
Cameron Smith ◽  
Emmanouil Froudarakis ◽  
Erick Cobos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Orientation Tuning ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Visual Hierarchy ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Mouse Visual Cortex ◽  
Salt And Pepper

In primates and most carnivores, neurons in primary visual cortex are spatially organized by their functional properties. For example, neurons with similar orientation preferences are grouped together in iso-orientation domains that smoothly vary over the cortical sheet. In rodents, on the other hand, neurons with different orientation preferences are thought to be spatially intermingled, a feature which has been termed “salt-and-pepper” organization. The apparent absence of any systematic structure in orientation tuning has been considered a defining feature of the rodent visual system for more than a decade, with broad implications for brain development, visual processing, and comparative neurophysiology. Here, we revisited this question using new techniques for wide-field two-photon calcium imaging that enabled us to collect nearly complete population tuning preferences in layers 2-4 across a large fraction of the mouse visual hierarchy. Examining the orientation tuning of these hundreds of thousands of neurons, we found a global map spanning multiple visual cortical areas in which orientation bias was organized around a single pinwheel centered in V1. This pattern was consistent across animals and cortical depth. The existence of this global organization in rodents has implications for our understanding of visual processing and the principles governing the ontogeny and phylogeny of the visual cortex of mammals.

scholarly journals Mouse visual cortex contains a region of enhanced spatial resolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enny H. van Beest ◽  
Sreedeep Mukherjee ◽  
Lisa Kirchberger ◽  
Ulf H. Schnabel ◽  
Chris van der Togt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Single Neurons ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Representation Of Space ◽  
Freely Moving ◽  
Mapping Techniques ◽  
Mouse Visual Cortex

AbstractThe representation of space in mouse visual cortex was thought to be relatively uniform. Here we reveal, using population receptive-field (pRF) mapping techniques, that mouse visual cortex contains a region in which pRFs are considerably smaller. This region, the “focea,” represents a location in space in front of, and slightly above, the mouse. Using two-photon imaging we show that the smaller pRFs are due to lower scatter of receptive-fields at the focea and an over-representation of binocular regions of space. We show that receptive-fields of single-neurons in areas LM and AL are smaller at the focea and that mice have improved visual resolution in this region of space. Furthermore, freely moving mice make compensatory eye-movements to hold this region in front of them. Our results indicate that mice have spatial biases in their visual processing, a finding that has important implications for the use of the mouse model of vision.

scholarly journals The Development of Active Binocular Vision under Normal and Alternate Rearing Conditions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Klimmasch ◽  
Johann Schneider ◽  
Alexander Lelais ◽  
Bertram E. Shi ◽  
Jochen Triesch
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Orientation Tuning ◽  
Active Perception ◽  
Efficient Coding ◽  
Rearing Conditions ◽  
Active Binocular Vision ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Visual Cortical

AbstractThe development of binocular vision is an active learning process comprising the development of disparity tuned neurons in visual cortex and the establishment of precise vergence control of the eyes. We present a computational model for the learning and self-calibration of active binocular vision based on the Active Efficient Coding framework, an extension of classic efficient coding ideas to active perception. Under normal rearing conditions, the model develops disparity tuned neurons and precise vergence control, allowing it to correctly interpret random dot stereogramms. Under altered rearing conditions modeled after neurophysiological experiments, the model qualitatively reproduces key experimental findings on changes in binocularity and disparity tuning. Furthermore, the model makes testable predictions regarding how altered rearing conditions impede the learning of precise vergence control. Finally, the model predicts a surprising new effect that impaired vergence control affects the statistics of orientation tuning in visual cortical neurons.

scholarly journals Orientation Tuning, But Not Direction Selectivity, Is Invariant to Temporal Frequency in Primary Visual Cortex

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 1336-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartlett D. Moore ◽  
Henry J. Alitto ◽  
W. Martin Usrey
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Orientation Tuning ◽  
Orientation Contrast ◽  
Wide Range

The activity of neurons in primary visual cortex is influenced by the orientation, contrast, and temporal frequency of a visual stimulus. This raises the question of how these stimulus properties interact to shape neuronal responses. While past studies have shown that the bandwidth of orientation tuning is invariant to stimulus contrast, the influence of temporal frequency on orientation-tuning bandwidth is unknown. Here, we investigate the influence of temporal frequency on orientation tuning and direction selectivity in area 17 of ferret visual cortex. For both simple cells and complex cells, measures of orientation-tuning bandwidth (half-width at half-maximum response) are ∼20–25° across a wide range of temporal frequencies. Thus cortical neurons display temporal-frequency invariant orientation tuning. In contrast, direction selectivity is typically reduced, and occasionally reverses, at nonpreferred temporal frequencies. These results show that the mechanisms contributing to the generation of orientation tuning and direction selectivity are differentially affected by the temporal frequency of a visual stimulus and support the notion that stability of orientation tuning is an important aspect of visual processing.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Motion-induced Blindness in the Human Brain

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1235-1243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke L. Schölvinck ◽  
Geraint Rees
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Visual Awareness ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Bistable Perception ◽  
Visual Phenomenon ◽  
High Level ◽  
Visual Cortical

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a visual phenomenon in which highly salient visual targets spontaneously disappear from visual awareness (and subsequently reappear) when superimposed on a moving background of distracters. Such fluctuations in awareness of the targets, although they remain physically present, provide an ideal paradigm to study the neural correlates of visual awareness. Existing behavioral data on MIB are consistent both with a role for structures early in visual processing and with involvement of high-level visual processes. To further investigate this issue, we used high field functional MRI to investigate signals in human low-level visual cortex and motion-sensitive area V5/MT while participants reported disappearance and reappearance of an MIB target. Surprisingly, perceptual invisibility of the target was coupled to an increase in activity in low-level visual cortex plus area V5/MT compared with when the target was visible. This increase was largest in retinotopic regions representing the target location. One possibility is that our findings result from an active process of completion of the field of distracters that acts locally in the visual cortex, coupled to a more global process that facilitates invisibility in general visual cortex. Our findings show that the earliest anatomical stages of human visual cortical processing are implicated in MIB, as with other forms of bistable perception.

Unconscious inference and conscious representation: Why primary visual cortex (V1) is directly involved in visual awareness

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Lin
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Vision System ◽  
Visual Awareness ◽  
Moving Object ◽  
Delay Compensation ◽  
Visual Hierarchy ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Visual Delay

AbstractThe extent to which visual processing can proceed in the visual hierarchy without awareness determines the magnitude of perceptual delay. Increasing data demonstrate that primary visual cortex (V1) is involved in consciousness, constraining the magnitude of visual delay. This makes it possible that visual delay is actually within the optimal lengths to allow sufficient computation; thus it might be unnecessary to compensate for visual delay.The time delay problem – that perception lives slightly in the past as a result of neural conduction – has recently attracted a considerate amount of attention in the context of the flash-lag effect. The effect refers to a visual illusion wherein a brief flash of light and a continuously moving object that physically align in space and time are perceived to be displaced from one another – the flashed stimulus appears to lag behind the moving object (Krekelberg & Lappe 2001). In the target article, Nijhawan compellingly argues that delay compensation could be undertaken by a predictive process in the feedforward pathways in the vision system. Before jumping into the quest for the mechanism of delay compensation, however, I would like to argue that the magnitude of delay has been overestimated, and that it might even be unnecessary to compensate for such a delay.

scholarly journals Early cross-modal interactions and adult human visual cortical plasticity revealed by binocular rivalry

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Lunghi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Binocular Rivalry ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Cortical Plasticity ◽  
Monocular Deprivation ◽  
Homeostatic Plasticity ◽  
Multisensory Perception ◽  
Modal Interactions ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Cortical

In this research binocular rivalry is used as a tool to investigate different aspects of visual and multisensory perception. Several experiments presented here demonstrated that touch specifically interacts with vision during binocular rivalry and that the interaction likely occurs at early stages of visual processing, probably V1 or V2. Another line of research also presented here demonstrated that human adult visual cortex retains an unexpected high degree of experience-dependent plasticity by showing that a brief period of monocular deprivation produced important perceptual consequences on the dynamics of binocular rivalry, reflecting a homeostatic plasticity. In summary, this work shows that binocular rivalry is a powerful tool to investigate different aspects of visual perception and can be used to reveal unexpected properties of early visual cortex.

scholarly journals Sensory prediction errors increase coding efficiency in mouse visual cortex through gain amplification

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Tang ◽  
Ehsan Kheradpezhouh ◽  
Conrad Lee ◽  
J Dickinson ◽  
Jason Mattingley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
V1 Neurons ◽  
Coding Efficiency ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Mouse Visual Cortex ◽  
Sensory Prediction

Abstract The efficiency of sensory coding is affected both by past events (adaptation) and by expectation of future events (prediction). Here we employed a novel visual stimulus paradigm to determine whether expectation influences orientation selectivity in the primary visual cortex. We used two-photon calcium imaging (GCaMP6f) in awake mice viewing visual stimuli with different levels of predictability. The stimuli consisted of sequences of grating stimuli that randomly shifted in orientation or systematically rotated with occasionally unexpected rotations. At the single neuron and population level, there was significantly enhanced orientation-selective response to unexpected visual stimuli through a boost in gain, which was prominent in awake mice but also present to a lesser extent under anesthesia. We implemented a computational model to demonstrate how neuronal responses were best characterized when adaptation and expectation parameters were combined. Our results demonstrated that adaptation and prediction have unique signatures on activity of V1 neurons.

scholarly journals Canonical and noncanonical features of the mouse visual cortical hierarchy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rinaldo D. D’Souza ◽  
Quanxin Wang ◽  
Weiqing Ji ◽  
Andrew M. Meier ◽  
Henry Kennedy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Active Vision ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Hierarchical Level ◽  
Continuous Measure ◽  
Axonal Projections ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Mouse Visual Cortex

ABSTRACTNeocortical circuit computations underlying active vision are performed by a distributed network of reciprocally connected, functionally specialized areas. Mouse visual cortex is a dense, hierarchically organized network, comprising subnetworks that form preferentially interconnected processing streams. To determine the detailed layout of the mouse visual hierarchy, laminar patterns formed by interareal axonal projections, originating in each of ten visual areas were analyzed. Reciprocally connected pairs of areas, and shared targets of pairs of source areas, exhibited structural features consistent with a hierarchical organization. Beta regression analyses, which estimated a continuous measure of hierarchical distance, indicated that the network comprises multiple hierarchies embedded within overlapping processing levels. Single unit recordings showed that within each processing stream, receptive field sizes typically increased with increasing hierarchical level; however, ventral stream areas showed overall larger receptive field diameters. Together, the results reveal canonical and noncanonical hierarchical network motifs in mouse visual cortex.

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