title: Subcortical orientation biases explain orientation selectivity of visual cortical cells.
abstract: The primary visual cortex of carnivores and primates shows an orderly progression of domains of neurons that are selective to a particular orientation of visual stimuli such as bars and gratings. We recorded from single-thalamic afferent fibers that terminate in these domains to address the issue whether the orientation sensitivity of these fibers could form the basis of the remarkable orientation selectivity exhibited by most cortical cells. We first performed optical imaging of intrinsic signals to obtain a map of orientation domains on the dorsal aspect of the anaesthetized cat's area 17. After confirming using electrophysiological recordings the orientation preferences of single neurons within one or two domains in each animal, we pharmacologically silenced the cortex to leave only the afferent terminals active. The inactivation of cortical neurons was achieved by the superfusion of either kainic acid or muscimol. Responses of single geniculate afferents were then recorded by the use of high impedance electrodes. We found that the orientation preferences of the afferents matched closely with those of the cells in the orientation domains that they terminated in (Pearson's r = 0.633, n = 22, P = 0.002). This suggests a possible subcortical origin for cortical orientation selectivity.
authors: Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia Melbourne Neuroscience Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia trv@unimelb.edu.au.
authors: Trichur R
authors: TR
authors: Vidyasagar
authors: Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Jaikishan
authors: J
authors: Jayakumar
authors: Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Errol
authors: E
authors: Lloyd
authors: Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
authors: Ekaterina V
authors: EV
authors: Levichkina
keywords: Lateral geniculate nucleus; kainic acid; muscimol; optical imaging; orientation selectivity; primary visual cortex