title: [Representation and readout of object information in macaque higher visual cortex].
abstract: Electrocorticogram (ECoG) is an electrophysiological brain activity recording technique that has been widely revisited in recent years, not only for clinical monitoring, but also for prosthetic applications. However, the extent and limitations of the technique are poorly understood. Higher areas of human and macaque ventral visual cortices are known to have functional domain structures that are selective to certain categories, and population vectors that have been derived from visually evoked single-unit activity (SUA) recording in this region have been shown to form category clusters. How can visually evoked potentials recorded with ECoG from the same region be exploited to extract category information? To answer this question, the development of a simultaneous ECoG and SUA recording device by the modification of a previously reported flexible mesh ECoG probe with a microelectromechanical system has been promising (Toda et al., 2011). Indeed, Toda et al. conducted simultaneous recordings and reported that mesh ECoG signals exhibited comparable or better signal variabilities compared to conventional methods in the rat visual cortex. With this approach, we conducted intensive simultaneous ECoG and SUA recordings from the macaque anterior inferior temporal (IT) cortex. We compared how basic visual category and fine information is decoded from different recording modalities. Our preliminary results indicated that ECoG signals from the IT cortex may be a useful source for reading out certain levels of category information from visual input.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrastructural Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center for Psychiatry and Neurology, Japan.
authors.forename: Naohisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miyakawa
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*