Article abstract
Nature Neuroscience 11, 88 - 94 (2008)
Published online: 16 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nn2029
On and off domains of geniculate afferents in cat primary visual cortex
Jianzhong Z Jin1, Chong Weng1, Chun-I Yeh1,2, Joshua A Gordon3,4, Edward S Ruthazer4,5, Michael P Stryker4, Harvey A Swadlow1,2 & Jose-Manuel Alonso1,2
Abstract
On- and off-center geniculate afferents form two major channels of visual processing that are thought to converge in the primary visual cortex. However, humans with severely reduced on responses can have normal visual acuity when tested in a white background, which indicates that off channels can function relatively independently from on channels under certain conditions. Consistent with this functional independence of channels, we demonstrate here that on- and off-center geniculate afferents segregate in different domains of the cat primary visual cortex and that off responses dominate the cortical representation of the area centralis. On average, 70% of the geniculate afferents converging at the same cortical domain had receptive fields of the same contrast polarity. Moreover, off-center afferents dominated the representation of the area centralis in the cortex, but not in the thalamus, indicating that on- and off-center afferents are balanced in number, but not in the amount of cortical territory that they cover.
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York Optometry, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, New York 10036, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 87, New York, New York 10032, USA.
- Department of Physiology, UCSF, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
- Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, 3801 University Street, Montreal QC H3A 2B4 Canada.
Correspondence to: Jose-Manuel Alonso1,2 e-mail: jalonso@sunyopt.edu
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