scholarly journals Motion Displaces Population Receptive Fields in the Direction Opposite to Motion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Schneider ◽  
Ingo Marquardt ◽  
Shubharthi Sengupta ◽  
Federico De Martino ◽  
Rainer Goebel
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Fields ◽  
7 Tesla ◽  
Stimulus Contrast ◽  
Stimulus Position ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
High Stimulus ◽  
Direction Opposite

ABSTRACTMotion signals can bias the perceived position of visual stimuli. While the apparent position of a stimulus is biased in the direction of motion, electro-physiological studies have shown that the receptive field (RF) of neurons is shifted in the direction opposite to motion, at least in cats and macaque monkeys. In humans, it remains unclear how motion signals affect population RF (pRF) estimates. We addressed this question using psychophysical measurements and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 7 Tesla. We systematically varied two factors: the motion direction of the carrier pattern (inward, outward and flicker motion) and the contrast of the mapping stimulus (low and high stimulus contrast). We observed that while physical positions were identical across all conditions, presence of low-contrast motion, but not high-contrast motion, shifted perceived stimulus position in the direction of motion. Correspondingly, we found that pRF estimates in early visual cortex were shifted against the direction of motion for low-contrast stimuli but not for high stimulus contrast. We offer an explanation in form of a model for why apertures are perceptually shifted in the direction of motion even though pRFs shift in the opposite direction.

scholarly journals Genetic disruption of the On visual pathway affects cortical orientation selectivity and contrast sensitivity in mice

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (11) ◽  
pp. 2276-2286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashmi Sarnaik ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Xiaorong Liu ◽  
Jianhua Cang
Keyword(s):  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Response Variability ◽  
Stimulus Contrast ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Pharmacological Blockade ◽  
Single Unit Recordings ◽  
On And Off Pathways

The retina signals stimulus contrast via parallel On and Off pathways and sends the information to higher visual centers. Here we study the role of the On pathway using mice that have null mutations in the On-specific GRM6 receptor in the retina (Pinto LH, Vitaterna MH, Shimomura K, Siepka SM, Balannik V, McDearmon EL, Omura C, Lumayag S, Invergo BM, Brandon M, Glawe B, Cantrell DR, Donald R, Inayat S, Olvera MA, Vessey KA, Kirstan A, McCall MA, Maddox D, Morgans CW, Young B, Pletcher MT, Mullins RF, Troy JB, Takahashi JS. Vis Neurosci 24: 111–123, 2007; Maddox DM, Vessey KA, Yarbrough GL, Invergo BM, Cantrell DR, Inayat S, Balannik V, Hicks WL, Hawes NL, Byers S, Smith RS, Hurd R, Howell D, Gregg RG, Chang B, Naggert JK, Troy JB, Pinto LH, Nishina PM, McCall MA. J Physiol 586: 4409–4424, 2008). In these “nob” mice, single unit recordings in the primary visual cortex (V1) reveal degraded selectivity for orientations due to an increased response at nonpreferred orientations. Contrast sensitivity in the nob mice is reduced with severe deficits at low contrast, consistent with the phenotype of night blindness in human patients with mutations in Grm6. These cortical deficits can be largely explained by reduced input drive and increased response variability seen in nob V1. Interestingly, increased variability is also observed in the superior colliculus of these mice but does not affect its tuning properties. Further, the increased response variability in the nob mice is traced to the retina, a result phenocopied by acute pharmacological blockade of the On pathway in wild-type retina. Together, our results suggest that the On and Off pathways normally interact to increase response reliability in the retina, which in turn propagates to various central visual targets and affects their functional properties.

scholarly journals A new variant of the barberpole effect: Psychophysical data and computer simulations

Psihologija ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
Dejan Todorovic
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Vertical Component ◽  
Parallel Line ◽  
Random Fluctuation ◽  
Final State ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Weak Preference ◽  
New Variant ◽  
Direction Sensitivity ◽  
Perceived Motion

The classic barberpole effect shows that perceived direction of motion of parallel line segments depends on the orientation of the frame defined by segment end points. A stimulus configuration was created by crossing two oblique barberpoles. Perceived motion in the crossed portion of the configuration is bi-stable, alternating between two oblique directions defined by the two component barberpoles. Ratings of dominance of perceived motion direction in the crossed portion of two barberpoles of different width and orientation revealed a strong preference for the wider component barberpole and a weak preference for the nearer-to-vertical component barberpole. A network model is presented in which each unit inhibits units with different direction sensitivity and co-extensive receptive fields, and excites units with equal direction sensitivity and neighboring receptive fields. Simulations of the temporal evolution of the spatial activity profile exhibit the effect of barberpole width and the bi-stability of percepts. Fatigue of highly adapted units enables the gradual emergence of non-adapted units. Small initial variations can lead to profound differences in the final state of the system, explaining the quasi-random fluctuation between the two perceptual variants.

Eye Position Compensation Improves Estimates of Response Magnitude and Receptive Field Geometry in Alert Monkeys

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 3439-3448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamei Tang ◽  
Alan Saul ◽  
Moshe Gur ◽  
Stephanie Goei ◽  
Elsie Wong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Stimulus Position ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Field Geometry ◽  
Receptive Field Subregions ◽  
Movement Compensation ◽  
Definition Of

Studies of visual function in behaving subjects require that stimuli be positioned reliably on the retina in the presence of eye movements. Fixational eye movements scatter stimuli about the retina, inflating estimates of receptive field dimensions, reducing estimates of peak responses, and blurring maps of receptive field subregions. Scleral search coils are frequently used to measure eye position, but their utility for correcting the effects of fixational eye movements on receptive field maps has been questioned. Using eye coils sutured to the sclera and preamplifiers configured to minimize cable artifacts, we reexamined this issue in two rhesus monkeys. During repeated fixation trials, the eye position signal was used to adjust the stimulus position, compensating for eye movements and correcting the stimulus position to place it at the desired location on the retina. Estimates of response magnitudes and receptive field characteristics in V1 and in LGN were obtained in both compensated and uncompensated conditions. Receptive fields were narrower, with steeper borders, and response amplitudes were higher when eye movement compensation was used. In sum, compensating for eye movements facilitated more precise definition of the receptive field. We also monitored horizontal vergence over long sequences of fixation trials and found the variability to be low, as expected for this precise behavior. Our results imply that eye coil signals can be highly accurate and useful for optimizing visual physiology when rigorous precautions are observed.

Auditory Motion Induces Directionally Dependent Receptive Field Shifts in Inferior Colliculus Neurons

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 2040-2062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willard W. Wilson ◽  
William E. O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Silent Interval ◽  
Auditory Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Motion Sequence ◽  
And Shifts

Wilson, Willard W. and William E. O'Neill. Auditory motion induces directionally dependent receptive field shifts in inferior colliculus neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2040–2062, 1998. This research focused on the response of neurons in the inferior colliculus of the unanesthetized mustached bat, Pteronotus parnelli, to apparent auditory motion. We produced the apparent motion stimulus by broadcasting pure-tone bursts sequentially from an array of loudspeakers along horizontal, vertical, or oblique trajectories in the frontal hemifield. Motion direction had an effect on the response of 65% of the units sampled. In these cells, motion in opposite directions produced shifts in receptive field locations, differences in response magnitude, or a combination of the two effects. Receptive fields typically were shifted opposite the direction of motion (i.e., units showed a greater response to moving sounds entering the receptive field than exiting) and shifts were obtained to horizontal, vertical, and oblique motion orientations. Response latency also shifted as a function of motion direction, and stimulus locations eliciting greater spike counts also exhibited the shortest neural latency. Motion crossing the receptive field boundaries appeared to be both necessary and sufficient to produce receptive field shifts. Decreasing the silent interval between successive stimuli in the apparent motion sequence increased both the probability of obtaining a directional effect and the magnitude of receptive field shifts. We suggest that the observed directional effects might be explained by “spatial masking,” where the response of auditory neurons after stimulation from particularly effective locations in space would be diminished. The shift in auditory receptive fields would be expected to shift the perceived location of a moving sound and may explain shifts in localization of moving sources observed in psychophysical studies. Shifts in perceived target location caused by auditory motion might be exploited by auditory predators such as Pteronotus in a predictive tracking strategy to capture moving insect prey.

scholarly journals The Effect of Attention on Neuronal Responses to High and Low Contrast Stimuli

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 960-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joonyeol Lee ◽  
John H. R. Maunsell
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Visual Area ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Attentional Modulation ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Visual Area Mt

It remains unclear how attention affects the tuning of individual neurons in visual cerebral cortex. Some observations suggest that attention preferentially enhances responses to low contrast stimuli, whereas others suggest that attention proportionally affects responses to all stimuli. Resolving how attention affects responses to different stimuli is essential for understanding the mechanism by which it acts. To explore the effects of attention on stimuli of different contrasts, we recorded from individual neurons in the middle temporal visual area (MT) of rhesus monkeys while shifting their attention between preferred and nonpreferred stimuli within their receptive fields. This configuration results in robust attentional modulation that makes it possible to readily distinguish whether attention acts preferentially on low contrast stimuli. We found no evidence for greater enhancement of low contrast stimuli. Instead, the strong attentional modulations were well explained by a model in which attention proportionally enhances responses to stimuli of all contrasts. These data, together with observations on the effects of attention on responses to other stimulus dimensions, suggest that the primary effect of attention in visual cortex may be to simply increase the strength of responses to all stimuli by the same proportion.

scholarly journals X-Chromosome Insufficiency Alters Receptive Fields across the Human Early Visual Cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (41) ◽  
pp. 8079-8088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Green ◽  
Hadi Hosseini ◽  
Aaron Piccirilli ◽  
Alexandra Ishak ◽  
Kalanit Grill-Spector ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
X Chromosome ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Early Visual Cortex

scholarly journals Level Dependence of Contextual Modulation in Auditory Cortex

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 1616-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Scholl ◽  
Xiang Gao ◽  
Michael Wehr
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Stimulus Context ◽  
Contextual Modulation ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Low Level ◽  
High Level ◽  
Contextual Interactions

Responses of cortical neurons to sensory stimuli within their receptive fields can be profoundly altered by the stimulus context. In visual and somatosensory cortex, contextual interactions have been shown to change sign from facilitation to suppression depending on stimulus strength. Contextual modulation of high-contrast stimuli tends to be suppressive, but for low-contrast stimuli tends to be facilitative. This trade-off may optimize contextual integration by cortical cells and has been suggested to be a general feature of cortical processing, but it remains unknown whether a similar phenomenon occurs in auditory cortex. Here we used whole cell and single-unit recordings to investigate how contextual interactions in auditory cortical neurons depend on the relative intensity of masker and probe stimuli in a two-tone stimulus paradigm. We tested the hypothesis that relatively low-level probes should show facilitation, whereas relatively high-level probes should show suppression. We found that contextual interactions were primarily suppressive across all probe levels, and that relatively low-level probes were subject to stronger suppression than high-level probes. These results were virtually identical for spiking and subthreshold responses. This suggests that, unlike visual cortical neurons, auditory cortical neurons show maximal suppression rather than facilitation for relatively weak stimuli.

Computation of motion direction by quail retinal ganglion cells that have a nonconcentric receptive field

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
HIROYUKI UCHIYAMA ◽  
TAKAHIDE KANAYA ◽  
SHOICHI SONOHATA
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽  
Japanese Quail ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Directional Selectivity ◽  
Retinal Ganglion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms

One type of retinal ganglion cells prefers object motion in a particular direction. Neuronal mechanisms for the computation of motion direction are still unknown. We quantitatively mapped excitatory and inhibitory regions of receptive fields for directionally selective retinal ganglion cells in the Japanese quail, and found that the inhibitory regions are displaced about 1–3 deg toward the side where the null sweep starts, relative to the excitatory regions. Directional selectivity thus results from delayed transient suppression exerted by the nonconcentrically arranged inhibitory regions, and not by local directional inhibition as hypothesized by Barlow and Levick (1965).

Attentional Recruitment of Inter-Areal Recurrent Networks for Selective Gain Control

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1669-1689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. R. Hahnloser ◽  
Rodney J. Douglas ◽  
Klaus Hepp
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
External Noise ◽  
Stimulus Selection ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
Higher Visual Areas

There is strong anatomical and physiological evidence that neurons with large receptive fields located in higher visual areas are recurrently connected to neurons with smaller receptive fields in lower areas. We have previously described a minimal neuronal network architecture in which top-down attentional signals to large receptive field neurons can bias and selectively read out the bottom-up sensory information to small receptive field neurons (Hahnloser, Douglas, Mahowald, & Hepp, 1999). Here we study an enhanced model, where the role of attention is to recruit specific inter-areal feedback loops (e.g., drive neurons above firing threshold). We first illustrate the operation of recruitment on a simple example of visual stimulus selection. In the subsequent analysis, we find that attentional recruitment operates by dynamical modulation of signal amplification and response multistability. In particular, we find that attentional stimulus selection necessitates increased recruitment when the stimulus to be selected is of small contrast and of small distance away from distractor stimuli. The selectability of a low-contrast stimulus is dependent on the gain of attentional effects; for example, low-contrast stimuli can be selected only when attention enhances neural responses. However, the dependence of attentional selection on stimulus-distractor distance is not contingent on whether attention enhances or suppresses responses. The computational implications of attentional recruitment are that cortical circuits can behave as winner-take-all mechanisms of variable strength and can achieve close to optimal signal discrimination in the presence of external noise.

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