The dendritic tree: a mathematical integrator.
Neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) are sensitive to simple features of the visual scene such as contrast, spatial frequency or orientations. In higher mammals, they are organized into columns of orientation-preference, whereas such organization is absent in rodents. However, in both types of organization, neurons can be highly selective or poorly selective for a particular stimulus. In mouse V1, it has been shown that all stimuli are represented on the dendritic tree of single neurons. To what extent this concept is applicable in higher mammals? In this review, we discuss possible models of integrating visual information from visual cortical neurons. In particular, how the modulation of the number of inputs and/or the frequency firing can explain the orientation selectivity in V1. Based on our findings and literature, we propose three different hypotheses namely the spatial summation, the temporal summation and the excitation-inhibition. In addition, we discuss the possible interactions between excitatory pyramidal neurons and inhibitory interneurons during stimulus processing.
Neurophysiology of Visual System Lab, Universite de Montreal, Departement de Sciences Biologiques, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3C3J7, lyes.bachatene@umontreal.ca.
Lyes
L
Bachatene
Neurophysiology of Visual System Lab, Universite de Montreal, Departement de Sciences Biologiques, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3C3J7.
Vishal
V
Bharmauria
D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*