title: Long-range traveling waves of activity triggered by local dichoptic stimulation in V1 of behaving monkeys.
abstract: Traveling waves of cortical activity, in which local stimulation triggers lateral spread of activity to distal locations, have been hypothesized to play an important role in cortical function. However, there is conflicting physiological evidence for the existence of spreading traveling waves of neural activity triggered locally. Dichoptic stimulation, in which the two eyes view dissimilar monocular patterns, can lead to dynamic wave-like fluctuations in visual perception and therefore, provides a promising means for identifying and studying cortical traveling waves. Here, we used voltage-sensitive dye imaging to test for the existence of traveling waves of activity in the primary visual cortex of awake, fixating monkeys viewing dichoptic stimuli. We find clear traveling waves that are initiated by brief, localized contrast increments in one of the monocular patterns and then, propagate at speeds of ∼ 30 mm/s. These results demonstrate that under an appropriate visual context, circuitry in visual cortex in alert animals is capable of supporting long-range traveling waves triggered by local stimulation.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute, James and Jean Culver Vision Discovery Institute, and Department of Ophthalmology, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia;
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, New York;
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Heeger
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt Vision Research Center and Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; and.
authors.forename: Randolph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.affiliation: Center for Perceptual Systems and Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, Texas eyal@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seidemann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D008251:Macaca; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D056969:Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging
keywords: dichoptic stimuli; traveling wave; visual cortex