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Research on figure-ground perception has consistently found that red images are more likely to be perceived as figure/nearer, yet the mechanisms behind this are not completely clear. The primary theories have pointed to optical chromatic aberrations or cortical mechanisms, such as the antagonistic interactions of the magno-/parvocellular (M/P) systems. Our study explored this color-biased figure-ground perception by examining the duration for which a region was perceived as figure under both binocular and monocular conditions, using all combinations of red, blue, green, and gray. In Experiment 1, we used figure-ground ambiguous Maltese crosses, composed of left- and right-tilting sectors of equal area. In Experiment 2, the crosses were figure-ground biased with size and orientation cues. Here, small sectors of cardinal orientations, likely perceived as figure, were contrasted with larger, obliquely oriented sectors, likely perceived as ground. Under monocular conditions, the results aligned with chromatic aberration predictions: red advanced and blue receded, regardless of size and orientation. However, under binocular conditions, the advancing effect of red continued, but the receding effect of blue was generally not observed. Notably, blue, along with red and green, was more frequently perceived as figure compared to gray. The results under binocular viewing are in line with the expectations of the antagonistic M/P system interactions theory, likely due to the collective input from both eyes, facilitating the anticipated effects. Our findings suggest that color-biased figure-ground perception may arise from the synergistic effect of antagonistic M/P system interactions and other optical and cortical mechanisms, together compensating for chromatic aberrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals at Clinical High Risk (CHR) for psychosis or in their First Episode (FE) of psychosis are in a pivotal time in adolescence or young adulthood when illness can greatly impact their functioning. Finding relevant biomarkers for psychosis in the early stages of illness can contribute to early diagnosis, therapeutic management and prediction of outcome. One such biomarker that has been studied in schizophrenia (SZ) is visual contrast sensitivity (VCS). VCS can be used to differentiate visual information processing function in the magnocellular versus parvocellular visual pathways. Few studies have assessed VCS in early psychosis. Participants included CHR (n = 68), FE psychosis (n = 34) and Healthy Comparison (HC) (n = 63). All were clinically assessed and completed a VCS paradigm that involved near threshold luminance and chromatic stimuli. CHR and FE participants had lower VCS in the luminance condition (F[2166] = 3.42, p < 0.05) compared to HC. There was also a significant sex X group interaction (F[5163] = 4.3, p < 0.001) in the luminance condition (F[5163] = 4.3, p < 0.001) as FE males (p < 0.01) and CHR females (p < 0.01) had the greatest deficits compared to male and female HC participants respectively. VCS deficits in the luminance condition were associated with more thought disorder, slower processing speed, worse executive functioning and poor global functioning (r's 0.25–0.50, p < 0.05). This study supports the hypothesis that there are deficits in visual information processing, particularly in tasks that emphasize the magnocellular pathway, in patients experiencing early psychosis. VCS therefore has the potential to be used as a biomarker in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: The Riddoch syndrome is thought to be caused by damage to the primary visual cortex (V1), usually following a vascular event. This study shows that damage to the anatomical input to V1, i.e., the optic radiations, can result in selective visual deficits that mimic the Riddoch syndrome. The results also highlight the differential susceptibility of the magnocellular and parvocellular visual systems to injury. Overall, this study offers new insights that will improve our understanding of the impact of brain injury and neurosurgery on the visual pathways. The Riddoch syndrome, characterised by the ability to perceive, consciously, moving visual stimuli but not static ones, has been associated with lesions of primary visual cortex (V1). We present here the case of patient YL who, after a tumour resection surgery that spared his V1, nevertheless showed symptoms of the Riddoch syndrome. Based on our testing, we postulated that the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) inputs to his V1 may be differentially affected. In a first experiment, YL was presented with static and moving checkerboards in his blind field while undergoing multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including structural, functional, and diffusion, acquired at 3 T. In a second experiment, we assessed YL's neural responses to M and P visual stimuli using psychophysics and high-resolution fMRI acquired at 7 T. YL's optic radiations were partially damaged but not severed. We found extensive activity in his visual cortex for moving, but not static, visual stimuli, while our psychophysical tests revealed that only low-spatial frequency moving checkerboards were perceived. High-resolution fMRI revealed strong responses in YL's V1 to M stimuli and very weak ones to P stimuli, indicating a functional P lesion affecting V1. In addition, YL frequently reported seeing moving stimuli and discriminating their direction of motion in the absence of visual stimulation, suggesting that he was experiencing visual hallucinations. Overall, this study highlights the possibility of a selective loss of P inputs to V1 resulting in the Riddoch syndrome and in hallucinations of visual motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Midget and parasol ganglion cells (GCs) represent the major output channels from the primate eye to the brain. On-type midget and parasol GCs exhibit a higher background spike rate and thus can respond more linearly to contrast changes than their Off-type counterparts. Here, we show that a calcium-permeable AMPA receptor (CP-AMPAR) antagonist blocks background spiking and sustained light-evoked firing in On-type GCs while preserving transient light responses. These effects are selective for On-GCs and are occluded by a gap-junction blocker suggesting involvement of AII amacrine cells (AII-ACs). Direct recordings from AII-ACs, cobalt uptake experiments, and analyses of transcriptomic data confirm that CP-AMPARs are expressed by primate AII-ACs. Overall, our data demonstrate that under some background light levels, CP-AMPARs at the rod bipolar to AII-AC synapse drive sustained signaling in On-type GCs and thus contribute to the more linear contrast signaling of the primate On- versus Off-pathway.

Theoretically, the pulsed- and steady-pedestal paradigms are thought to track contrast-increment thresholds (ΔC) as a function of pedestal contrast (C) for the parvocellular (P) and magnocellular (M) systems, respectively, yielding linear ΔC versus C functions for the pulsed- and nonlinear functions for the steady-pedestal paradigm. A recent study utilizing these paradigms to isolate the P and M systems reported no evidence of the M system being suppressed by red light, contrary to previous physiological and psychophysical findings. Curious as to why this may have occurred, we examined how ΔC varies with C for the P and M systems using the pulsed- and steady-pedestal paradigms and stimuli biased towards the P or M systems based on their sensitivity to spatial frequency (SF) and color. We found no effect of color and little influence of SF. To explain this lack of color effects, we used a quantitative model of ΔC (as it changes with C) to obtain Csat and contrast-gain values. The contrast-gain values (i) contradicted the hypothesis that the steady-pedestal paradigm tracks the M-system response, and (ii) our obtained Csat values indicated strongly that both pulsed- and steady-pedestal paradigms track primarily the P-system response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulsed- and steady-pedestal paradigms were designed to track increment thresholds (ΔC) as a function of pedestal contrast (C) for the parvocellular (P) and magnocellular (M) systems, respectively. These paradigms produce contrasting results: linear relationships between ΔC and C are observed in the pulsed-pedestal paradigm, indicative of the P system’s processing, while the steady-pedestal paradigm reveals nonlinear functions, characteristic of the M system’s response. However, we recently found the P model fits better than the M model for both paradigms, using Gabor stimuli biased towards the M or P systems based on their sensitivity to color and spatial frequency. Here, we used two-square pedestals under green vs. red light in the lower-left vs. upper-right visual fields to bias processing towards the M vs. P system, respectively. Based on our previous findings, we predicted the following: (1) steeper ΔC vs. C functions with the pulsed than the steady pedestal due to different task demands; (2) lower ΔCs in the upper-right vs. lower-left quadrant due to its bias towards P-system processing there; (3) no effect of color, since both paradigms track the P-system; and, most importantly (4) contrast gain should not be higher for the steady than for the pulsed pedestal. In general, our predictions were confirmed, replicating our previous findings and providing further evidence questioning the general validity of using the pulsed- and steady-pedestal paradigms to differentiate the P and M systems.

Despite proving its usefulness for over a century, the concept of developmental dyslexia (DD) is currently in severe disarray because of the recent introduction of the phonological theory of its causation. Since mastering the phonological principle is essential for all reading, failure to do so cannot be used to distinguish DD from the many other causes of such failure. To overcome this problem, many new psychological, signal detection, and neurological theories have been introduced recently. All these new theories converge on the idea that DD is fundamentally caused by impaired signalling of the timing of the visual and auditory cues that are essential for reading. These are provided by large 'magnocellular' neurones which respond rapidly to sensory transients. The evidence for this conclusion is overwhelming. Especially convincing are intervention studies that have shown that improving magnocellular function improves dyslexic children's reading, together with cohort studies that have demonstrated that the magnocellular timing deficit is present in infants who later become dyslexic, long before they begin learning to read. The converse of the magnocellular deficit in dyslexics may be that they gain parvocellular abundance. This may often impart the exceptional 'holistic' talents that have been ascribed to them and that society needs to nurture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body inversion effects (BIEs) reflect the deployment of the configural processing of body stimuli. BIE modulates the activity of body-selective areas within both the dorsal and the ventral streams, which are tuned to low (LSF) or high spatial frequencies (HSF), respectively. The specific contribution of different bands to the configural processing of bodies along gender and posture dimensions, however, is still unclear. Seventy-two participants performed a delayed matching-to-sample paradigm in which upright and inverted bodies, differing for gender or posture, could be presented in their original intact form or in the LSF- or HSF-filtered version. In the gender discrimination task, participants' performance was enhanced by the presentation of HSF images. Conversely, for the posture discrimination task, a better performance was shown for either HSF or LSF images. Importantly, comparing the amount of BIE across spatial-frequency conditions, we found greater BIEs for HSF than LSF images in both tasks, indicating that configural body processing may be better supported by HSF information, which will bias processing in the ventral stream areas. Finally, the exploitation of HSF information for the configural processing of body postures was lower in individuals with higher autistic traits, likely reflecting a stronger reliance on the local processing of body-part details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory deficits are core features of schizophrenia, and a central aim in biological psychiatry is to identify the etiology of these deficits. Scrutiny is naturally focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampal cortices, given these structures' roles in memory and learning. The fronto-hippocampal framework is valuable but restrictive. Network-based underpinnings of learning and memory are substantially diverse and include interactions between hetero-modal and early sensory networks. Thus, a loss of fidelity in sensory information may impact memorial and cognitive processing in higher-order brain sub-networks, becoming a sensory source for learning and memory deficits. In this overview, we suggest that impairments in magno- and parvo-cellular visual pathways result in degraded inputs to core learning and memory networks. The ascending cascade of aberrant neural events significantly contributes to learning and memory deficits in schizophrenia. We outline the network bases of these effects, and suggest that any network perspectives of dysfunction in schizophrenia must assess the impact of impaired perceptual contributions. Finally, we speculate on how this framework enriches the space of biomarkers and expands intervention strategies to ameliorate this prototypical disconnection syndrome. • The fidelity of unimodal inputs impacts learning and memory. • Schizophrenia is characterized by deficits in magno- and parvocellular pathways. • These deficits will impact frontal-hippocampal network function. • Models of frontal-hippocampal impairment must consider the role of visual pathways. • Thus, dys-connection in schizophrenia is global and not local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is a key thalamic nucleus in the visual system, which has an important function in relaying retinal visual input to the visual cortex. The human LGN is composed mainly of magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) subdivisions, each of which has different stimulus selectivity in neural response properties. Previous studies have discussed the potential relationship between LGN subdivisions and visual disorders based on psychophysical data on specific types of visual stimuli. However, these relationships remain speculative because non-invasive measurements of these subdivisions are difficult due to the small size of the LGN. Here we propose a method to identify these subdivisions by combining two structural MR measures: high-resolution proton-density weighted images and macromolecular tissue volume (MTV) maps. We defined the M and P subdivisions based on MTV fraction data and tested the validity of the definition by (1) comparing the data with that from human histological studies, (2) comparing the data with functional magnetic resonance imaging measurements on stimulus selectivity, and (3) analyzing the test-retest reliability. The findings demonstrated that the spatial organization of the M and P subdivisions was consistent across subjects and in line with LGN subdivisions observed in human histological data. Moreover, the difference in stimulus selectivity between the subdivisions identified using MTV was consistent with previous physiology literature. The definition of the subdivisions based on MTV was shown to be robust over measurements taken on different days. These results suggest that MTV mapping is a promising approach for evaluating the tissue properties of LGN subdivisions in living humans. This method potentially will enable neuroscientific and clinical hypotheses about the human LGN subdivisions to be tested.

Rationale: Visuo-perceptive deficits in severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD) remain little understood, notably regarding the respective involvement of the two main human visual streams, i.e., magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) pathways, in these deficits. Besides, in healthy populations, low-level visual perception can adapt depending on the nature of visual cues, among which emotional features, but this MC and PC pathway adaptation to emotional content is unexplored in SAUD. Objectives: To assess MC and PC functioning as well as their emotional modulations in SAUD. Methods: We used sensitivity indices (d′) and repeated-measures analyses of variance to compare orientation judgments of Gabor patches sampled at various MC- and PC-related spatial frequencies in 35 individuals with SAUD and 38 matched healthy controls. We then explored how emotional content modulated performances by introducing neutral or fearful face cues immediately before the Gabor patches and added the type of cue in the analyses. Results: SAUD patients showed a general reduction in sensitivity across all spatial frequencies, indicating impoverished processing of both coarse and fine-scale visual content. However, we observed selective impairments depending on facial cues: individuals with SAUD processed intermediate spatial frequencies less efficiently than healthy controls following neutral faces, whereas group differences emerged for the highest spatial frequencies following fearful faces. Altogether, SAUD was associated with mixed MC and PC deficits that may vary according to emotional content, in line with a flexible but suboptimal use of low-level visual content. Such subtle alterations could have implications for everyday life's complex visual judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visuospatial impairments have long been reported in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder but remain poorly understood, notably regarding the involvement of magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) pathways. This empirical gap hampers the understanding of the implications of these visual changes, especially since the MC and PC pathways are thought to sustain central bottom-up and top-down processes during cognitive processing. They thus influence our ability to efficiently monitor our environment and make the most effective decisions. To overcome this limitation, we measured PC-inferred spatial and MC-inferred temporal resolution in 35 individuals with SAUD and 30 healthy controls. We used Landolt circles displaying small apertures outside the sensitivity range of MC cells or flickering at a temporal frequency exceeding PC sensitivity. We found evidence of preserved PC spatial resolution combined with impaired MC temporal resolution in SAUD. We also measured how spatial and temporal sensitivity is influenced by the prior presentation of fearful faces – as emotional content could favor MC processing over PC one – but found no evidence of emotional modulation in either group. This spatio-temporal dissociation implies that individuals with SAUD may process visual details efficiently but perceive rapidly updating visual information at a slower pace. This deficit has implications for the tracking of rapidly changing stimuli in experimental tasks, but also for the decoding of crucial everyday visual incentives such as faces, whose micro-expressions vary continuously. Future studies should further specify the visual profile of individuals with SAUD to incorporate disparate findings within a theoretically grounded model of vision. • Severe Alcohol Use Disorder is related to long-term changes in visual abilities. • We measured their spatial and temporal nature through psychophysical paradigms. • Patients showed a specific deficit for rapid flickers but not small details. • They present a dissociation between impaired temporal/preserved spatial resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Grasping; perception and action; spatial frameworks; parvocellular; magnocellular EN Grasping perception and action spatial frameworks parvocellular magnocellular 109 112 4 09/16/22 20220201 NES 220201 Davida's striking pattern of visual deficits and spared visual abilities presents us with a real challenge of interpretation (Vannuscorps et al., [8]). Others simply move their finger and thumb directly to edges of the object, a strategy that Davida appears to adopt when showing how she would grasp the line (see movie S6 in supplementary movies). In the absence of haptic feedback, Davida would have had to rely more heavily on I visual i feedback about the position of her fingers with respect to the ends of the target line to compute an error signal for updating her subsequent grasps. [Extracted from the article]

Classically, hypothalamic neuroendocrine cells that synthesise oxytocin and vasopressin were categorised in two major cell types: the magnocellular and parvocellular neurones. It was assumed that magnocellular neurones project exclusively to the pituitary gland where they release oxytocin and vasopressin into the systemic circulation. The parvocellular neurones, on the other hand, project within the brain to regulate discrete brain circuitries and behaviours. Within the last few years, it has become evident that the classical view of these projections is outdated. It is now clear that oxytocin and vasopressin in the brain are released extrasynaptically from dendrites and from varicosities in distant axons. The peptides act principally to modulate information transfer through conventional synapses (such as glutamate synapses) by actions at respective receptors that may be preferentially localised to synaptic regions (on either side of the synapse) to alter the 'gain' of conventional synapses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: How abnormal visual experiences early in life influence human subcortical pathways is poorly understood. Using high-resolution fMRI and pathway-selective visual stimuli, we investigate the influence of amblyopia on response properties and the effective connectivity of subcortical visual pathways of the adult human brain. Compared to the normal and fellow eyes, stimuli presented to the amblyopic eye show selectively reduced response in the parvocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus and weaker effective connectivity to V1. Compared to the normal eye, the response of the amblyopic eye to chromatic stimulus decreases in the superficial layers of the superior colliculus, while response of the fellow eye robustly increases in the deep SC with stronger connectivity from the visual cortex. Therefore, amblyopia leads to selective parvocellular alterations of the geniculostriate and corticotectal pathways. These findings provide the neural basis for amblyopic deficits in visual acuity, ocular motor control, and attention.

The visual system uses parallel pathways to process information. However, an ongoing debate centers on the extent to which the pathways from the retina, via the Lateral Geniculate nucleus to the visual cortex, process distinct aspects of the visual scene and, if they do, can stimuli in the laboratory be used to selectively drive them. These questions are important for a number of reasons, including that some pathologies are thought to be associated with impaired functioning of one of these pathways and certain cognitive functions have been preferentially linked to specific pathways. Here we examine the two main pathways that have been the focus of this debate: the magnocellular and parvocellular pathways. Specifically, we review the results of electrophysiological and lesion studies that have investigated their properties and conclude that while there is substantial overlap in the type of information that they process, it is possible to identify aspects of visual information that are predominantly processed by either the magnocellular or parvocellular pathway. We then discuss the types of visual stimuli that can be used to preferentially drive these pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) subdivisions of primate LGN are known to process complementary types of visual stimulus information, but a method for noninvasively defining these subdivisions in humans has proven elusive. As a result, the functional roles of these subdivisions in humans have not been investigated physiologically. To functionally map the M and P subdivisions of human LGN, we used high-resolution fMRI at high field (7 T and 3 T) together with a combination of spatial, temporal, luminance, and chromatic stimulus manipulations. We found that stimulus factors that differentially drive magnocellular and parvocellular neurons in primate LGN also elicit differential BOLD fMRI responses in human LGN and that these responses exhibit a spatial organization consistent with the known anatomical organization of the M and P subdivisions. In test-retest studies, the relative responses of individual voxels to M-type and P-type stimuli were reliable across scanning sessions on separate days and across sessions at different field strengths. The ability to functionally identify magnocellular and parvocellular regions of human LGN with fMRI opens possibilities for investigating the functions of these subdivisions in human visual perception, in patient populations with suspected abnormalities in one of these subdivisions, and in visual cortical processing streams arising from parallel thalamocortical pathways.

Michael F Wesner,1 James Brazeau2 1Psychology Department, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada; 2Center for Pediatric Excellence, Ottawa, ON K2G 1W2, CanadaCorrespondence: Michael F WesnerPsychology Department, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, CanadaTel +1-807-768-0564Email michael.wesner@lakeheadu.caIntroduction: Although conscious, image-forming illusions have been noted in migraine, few studies have specifically sought to collectively evaluate the role of all three parallel visual processing streams in the retinogeniculostriate pathway involved with image-forming vision and their implications in the development of migraine symptoms.Methods: We psychophysically assessed the functionality of the inferred magnocellular (MC), parvocellular (PC), and koniocellular (KC) streams at different hierarchical loci across three clinical groups: individuals who experience migraine with aura (MA; n=13), experience migraine without aura (MWO; n=14), and Controls (n=15). Participants completed four experiments: Experiment 1 designed to assess retinal short-wavelength-sensitive (S-) cone sensitivities; Experiment 2 intended to measure postretinal temporal and spatiochromatic contrast sensitivities; Experiment 3 intended to assess postretinal spatiotemporal achromatic contrast sensitivities; and Experiment 4 designed to measure thalamocortical color discriminations along the three cone-excitation axes.Results: S-cone deficits were revealed with greater retinal areas being affected in MA compared to MWO participants. Findings across the four experiments suggest a prominent retinal locus of dysfunction in MA (lesser in MWO) with potential feedforward compensations occurring within the KC visual stream.Conclusion: Complex, integrative network compensations need to be factored in when considering the dysregulating influences of migraine along the visual pathway.Keywords: migraine, S-cones, koniocellular, parvocellular, magnocellular, spatiochromatic

Background: Severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD) is associated with widespread cognitive impairments, including low‐level visual processing deficits that persist after prolonged abstinence. However, the extent and characteristics of these visual deficits remain largely undetermined, impeding the identification of their underlying mechanisms and influence on higher‐order processing. In particular, little work has been conducted to assess the integrity of the magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) visual pathways, namely the 2 main visual streams that convey information from the retina up to striate, extrastriate, and dorsal/ventral cerebral regions. Methods: We investigated achromatic luminance contrast processing mediated by inferred MC and PC pathways in 33 patients with SAUD and 32 matched healthy controls using 2 psychophysical pedestal contrast discrimination tasks that promote responses of inferred MC or PC pathways. We relied on a staircase procedure to assess participants' ability to detect small changes in luminance within an array of 4 gray squares that were either continuously presented (steady pedestal, MC‐biased) or briefly flashed (pulsed pedestal, PC‐biased). Results: We replicated the expected pattern of MC and PC contrast responses in healthy controls. We found preserved dissociation of MC and PC contrast signatures in SAUD but higher MC‐mediated mean contrast discrimination thresholds combined with a steeper PC‐mediated contrast discrimination slope compared with healthy controls. Conclusion: These findings indicate altered MC‐mediated contrast sensitivity and PC‐mediated contrast gain, confirming the presence of early sensory disturbances in individuals with SAUD. Such low‐level deficits, while usually overlooked, might influence higher‐order abilities (e.g., memory, executive functions) in SAUD by disturbing the "coarse‐to‐fine" tuning of the visual system, which relies on the distinct functional properties of MC and PC pathways and ensures proper and efficient monitoring of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies showed that the lateral masking of a fast-moving low spatial frequency (SF) target was strong when exerted by static flankers of lower or equal to the target SF and absent when flankers' SF was higher than the target's one. These masking and unmasking effects have been interpreted as due to Magnocellular-Magnocellular (M-M) inhibition and Parvocellular-on-Magnocellular (P-M) disinhibitory coactivation, respectively. Based on the hypothesis that the balance between the two systems is perturbed in Developmental Dyslexia (DD), we asked whether dyslexic children (DDs) behaved differently than Typically Developing children (TDs) in conditions of lateral masking. DDs and TDs performed a motion discrimination task, of a .5c/deg Gabor target moving at 16 deg/sec, either isolated or flanked by static Gabors with a SF of .125, .5 or 2 c/deg (Experiment 1). As a control, they also performed a contrast detection task of a static target, either isolated or flanked (Experiment 2). DDs did not perform any different from TDs with either a static target or an isolated moving target of low spatial frequency, thus suggesting efficient feedforward Magnocellular (M) and Parvocellular (P) processing. Also, DDs showed similar contrast thresholds to TDs in the M-M inhibition condition. Conversely, DDs did not recover from lateral masking in the M-P coactivation condition. In addition, their performance in this condition negatively correlated with non-words accuracy, supporting the suggestion that an inefficient Magno-Parvo coactivation may possibly be associated to both higher visual suppression and reduced perceptual stability during reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundIndividuals with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses have deficient visual information processing as assessed by a variety of paradigms including visual backward masking, motion perception and visual contrast sensitivity (VCS). In the present study, the VCS paradigm was used to investigate potential differences in magnocellular (M) vs. parvocellular (P) channel function that might account for the observed information processing deficits of schizophrenia spectrum patients. Specifically, VCS for near threshold luminance (black/white) stimuli is known to be governed primarily by the M channel, while VCS for near threshold chromatic (red/green) stimuli is governed by the P channel.MethodsVCS for luminance and chromatic stimuli (counterphase-reversing sinusoidal gratings, 1.22 c/degree, 8.3 Hz) was assessed in 53 patients with schizophrenia (including 5 off antipsychotic medication), 22 individuals diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and 53 healthy comparison subjects.ResultsSchizophrenia spectrum groups demonstrated reduced VCS in both conditions relative to normals, and there was no significant group by condition interaction effect. Post-hoc analyses suggest that it was the patients with schizophrenia on antipsychotic medication as well as SPD participants who accounted for the deficits in the luminance condition.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate visual information processing deficits in schizophrenia spectrum populations but do not support the notion of selective abnormalities in the function of subcortical channels as suggested by previous studies. Further work is needed in a longitudinal design to further assess VCS as a vulnerability marker for psychosis as well as the effect of antipsychotic agents on performance in schizophrenia spectrum populations.

Hypertension is a global health burden. The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is an essential component of the neuronal network that regulates sodium homeostasis and blood pressure (BP). Previously, we have shown PVN-specific G protein-coupled receptor-coupled Gαi2 subunit proteins are essential to counter the development of salt-sensitive hypertension by mediating the sympathoinhibitory and natriuretic responses to increased dietary sodium intake to maintain sodium homeostasis and normotension. However, the cellular localization and identity of PVN Gαi2-expressing neurons are currently unknown. In this study using in situ hybridization, we determined the neuroanatomical characterization of Gαi2-expressing PVN neurons in 3-mo-old male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. We observed that Gαi2-expressing neurons containing Gnai2 mRNA are highly localized in the parvocellular region of the hypothalamic PVN. At level 2 of the hypothalamic PVN, Gnai2 mRNA colocalized with ∼ 85% of GABA-expressing neurons and ∼28% of glutamatergic neurons. Additionally, within level 2 Gnai2 mRNA colocalized with ∼75% of corticotrophin-releasing hormone PVN neurons. Gnai2 neurons had lower colocalization with tyrosine hydroxylase (∼33%)-, oxytocin (∼6%)-, and arginine vasopressin (∼10%)-expressing parvocellular neurons in level 2 PVN. Colocalization was similar among male and female rats. The high colocalization of Gnai2 mRNA with GABAergic neurons, in conjunction with our previous findings that PVN Gαi2 proteins mediate sympathoinhibition, suggests that Gαi2 proteins potentially modulate GABAergic signaling to impact sympathetic outflow and BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two main subcortical pathways serving conscious visual perception are the midget-parvocellular (P), and the parasol-magnocellular (M) pathways. It is generally accepted that the P pathway serves red-green color vision, but the relative contribution of P and M pathways to spatial vision is a long-standing and unresolved issue. Here, we mapped the spatial sampling properties of P and M pathways across the human retina. Data were obtained from immunolabeled vertical sections of six postmortem male and female human donor retinas and imaged using high-resolution microscopy. Cone photoreceptors, OFF-midget bipolar cells (P pathway), OFF-diffuse bipolar (DB) types DB3a and DB3b (M pathway), and ganglion cells were counted along the temporal horizontal meridian, taking foveal spatial distortions (postreceptoral displacements) into account. We found that the density of OFF-midget bipolar and OFF-midget ganglion cells can support one-to-one connections to 1.05-mm (3.6°) eccentricity. One-to-one connections of cones to OFF-midget bipolar cells are present to at least 10-mm (35°) eccentricity. The OFF-midget ganglion cell array acuity is well-matched to photopic spatial acuity measures throughout the central 35°, but the OFF-parasol array acuity is well below photopic spatial acuity, supporting the view that the P pathway underlies high-acuity spatial vision. Outside the fovea, array acuity of both OFF-midget and OFF-DB cells exceeds psychophysical measures of photopic spatial acuity. We conclude that parasol and midget pathway bipolar cells deliver high-acuity spatial signals to the inner plexiform layer, but outside the fovea, this spatial resolution is lost at the level of ganglion cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroretinograms (ERGs) elicited by high temporal frequency (26-95 Hz) L- and M-cone isolating sine-wave stimuli were investigated in human observers for full-field (FF) and different spatially restricted stimulus sizes (70°, 50°, 30°, and 10° diameter). Responses to L- and M-cone isolating FF stimuli were maximal around 48 Hz and decreased gradually with increasing temporal frequency up to 95 Hz. The response maximum was shifted to about 30-32 Hz for both L- and M-cone driven responses obtained with spatially restricted stimuli. The M-cone driven responses could only be measured up to 54 Hz with 70° stimuli. The response amplitudes for L- and M-cones and L-/M-cone amplitude ratios decreased with decreasing stimulus size. The ERG response phases to L- and M-cone isolating stimuli decreased with increasing temporal frequency and were about -160° apart for all stimulus sizes up to 34 Hz. Further increase in the temporal frequency displayed a positive correlation between stimulus size and L-M phase difference. The ERG data indicate that the responses evoked by high temporal frequency cone isolating stimuli reflect two mechanisms, one that is more centrally located and displays a maximum at about 30-32 Hz and a peripheral mechanism that is sensitive to higher temporal modulations. We propose that the peripheral mechanism (FF ERGs) reflects magnocellular activity, whereas the central mechanism (ERGs with spatially restricted stimuli) is based on a parvocellular activity up to about 30 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnocellular deficit theory of dyslexia suggests a selective impairment in contrast detection of stimuli involving pure magnocellular response (e.g. Gabor patches of 0.5 c/deg, 30 Hz, low contrast). An alternative hypothesis is that, dyslexia may be associated with a reduction of typical facilitation that normal readers present for stimuli relying on low-level magno-parvo co-activation, relative to stimuli eliciting pure magno activation. According to this hypothesis, any advantage in contrast sensitivity, produced by either decreasing stimuli temporal frequency (from 30 to 10 Hz, Experiment 1) or using static stimuli of increasing spatial frequency (from 0.5 to 4 c/deg, Experiment 2), would be ascribed to the coexisting responses of the magnocellular and parvocellular systems. In the control group, this advantage in contrast sensitivity was found for a 0.5 c/deg Gabor (either static or flickering at 10 Hz) and for a static Gabor of 4 c/deg. In contrast to magnocellular deficit theory predictions, dyslexic individuals showed no deficit in the unmixed magnocellular response. However, they showed no advantage when the relative weight between magnocellular and parvocellular inputs was thrown off balance in favor of the latter. These results suggest that in order to interpret low-level visual deficits in dyslexia, it is worth considering that fast, feedforward low-frequency representations of spatial structures may result from the coexisting responses of two systems. Our results suggest that in dyslexia, the relative contribution of these two systems in visual processing is perturbed, and that this may have detrimental consequences in word processing, both within the parafovea and the fovea during fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human faces evolved to signal emotions, with their meaning contextualized by eye gaze. For instance, a fearful expression paired with averted gaze clearly signals both presence of threat and its probable location. Conversely, direct gaze paired with facial fear leaves the source of the fear-evoking threat ambiguous. Given that visual perception occurs in parallel streams with different processing emphases, our goal was to test a recently developed hypothesis that clear and ambiguous threat cues would differentially engage the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) pathways, respectively. We employed two-tone face images to characterize the neurodynamics evoked by stimuli that were biased toward M or P pathways. Human observers (N  = 57) had to identify the expression of fearful or neutral faces with direct or averted gaze while their magnetoencephalogram was recorded. Phase locking between the amygdaloid complex, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and fusiform gyrus increased early (0–300 ms) for M-biased clear threat cues (averted-gaze fear) in the β-band (13–30 Hz) while P-biased ambiguous threat cues (direct-gaze fear) evoked increased θ (4–8 Hz) phase locking in connections with OFC of the right hemisphere. We show that M and P pathways are relatively more sensitive toward clear and ambiguous threat processing, respectively, and characterize the neurodynamics underlying emotional face processing in the M and P pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background—the magnocellular hypothesis proposes that impaired development of the visual timing systems in the brain that are mediated by magnocellular (M-) neurons is a major cause of dyslexia. Their function can now be assessed quite easily by analysing averaged visually evoked event-related potentials (VERPs) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Such analysis might provide a useful, objective biomarker for diagnosing developmental dyslexia. (2) Methods—in adult dyslexics and normally reading controls, we recorded steady state VERPs, and their frequency content was computed using the fast Fourier transform. The visual stimulus was a black and white checker board whose checks reversed contrast every 100 ms. M- cells respond to this stimulus mainly at 10 Hz, whereas parvocells (P-) do so at 5 Hz. Left and right visual hemifields were stimulated separately in some subjects to see if there were latency differences between the M- inputs to the right vs. left hemispheres, and these were compared with the subjects’ handedness. (3) Results—Controls demonstrated a larger 10 Hz than 5 Hz fundamental peak in the spectra, whereas the dyslexics showed the reverse pattern. The ratio of subjects’ 10/5 Hz amplitudes predicted their reading ability. The latency of the 10 Hz peak was shorter during left than during right hemifield stimulation, and shorter in controls than in dyslexics. The latter correlated weakly with their handedness. (4) Conclusion—Steady state visual ERPs may conveniently be used to identify developmental dyslexia. However, due to the limited numbers of subjects in each sub-study, these results need confirmation.

Eye dominance is often defined as a preference for the visual input of one eye to the other. Implicit in this definition is the dominant eye has better visual function. Several studies have investigated the effect of visual direction or defocus on ocular dominance, but there is less evidence connecting ocular dominance and monocular visual thresholds. We used the classic “hole in card” method to determine the dominant eye for 28 adult observers (11 males and 17 females). We then compared contrast thresholds between the dominant and non-dominant eyes using grating stimuli biased to be processed more strongly either by the magnocellular (MC) or parvocellular (PC) pathway. Using non-parametric mean rank tests, the dominant eye was more sensitive overall than the non-dominant eye to both stimuli (z = −2.54, p = 0.01). The dominant eye was also more sensitive to the PC-biased stimulus (z = −2.22, p = 0.03) but not the MC-biased stimulus (z = −1.16, p = 0.25). We discuss the clinical relevance of these results as well as the implications for parallel visual pathways.

Computational models that predict the spectral sensitivities of primate cone photoreceptors have focussed only on the spectral, not spatial, dimensions. On the ecologically valid task of foraging for fruit, such models predict the M-cone (“green”) peak spectral sensitivity 10–20 nm further from the L-cone (“red”) sensitivity peak than it is in nature and assume their separation is limited by other visual constraints, such as the requirement of high-acuity spatial vision for closer M and L peak sensitivities. We explore the possibility that a spatio-chromatic analysis can better predict cone spectral tuning without appealing to other visual constraints. We build a computational model of the primate retina and simulate chromatic gratings of varying spatial frequencies using measured spectra. We then implement the case study of foveal processing in routinely trichromatic primates for the task of discriminating fruit and leaf spectra. We perform an exhaustive search for the configurations of M and L cone spectral sensitivities that optimally distinguish the colour patterns within these spectral images. Under such conditions, the model suggests that: (1) a long-wavelength limit is required to constrain the L cone spectral sensitivity to its natural position; (2) the optimal M cone peak spectral sensitivity occurs at ~525 nm, close to the observed position in nature (~535 nm); (3) spatial frequency has a small effect upon the spectral tuning of the cones; (4) a selective pressure toward less correlated M and L spectral sensitivities is provided by the need to reduce noise caused by the luminance variation that occurs in natural scenes.

The neuroendocrine system consists of a heterogeneous collection of (mostly) neuropeptidergic neurons found in four hypothalamic nuclei and sharing the ability to secrete neurohormones (all of them neuropeptides except dopamine) into the bloodstream. There are, however, abundant hypothalamic non-neuroendocrine neuropeptidergic neurons developing in parallel with the neuroendocrine system, so that both cannot be entirely disentangled. This heterogeneity results from the workings of a network of transcription factors many of which are already known. Olig2 and Fezf2 expressed in the progenitors, acting through mantle-expressed Otp and Sim1, Sim2 and Pou3f2 (Brn2), regulate production of magnocellular and anterior parvocellular neurons. Nkx2-1, Rax, Ascl1, Neurog3 and Dbx1 expressed in the progenitors, acting through mantle-expressed Isl1, Dlx1, Gsx1, Bsx, Hmx2/3, Ikzf1, Nr5a2 (LH-1) and Nr5a1 (SF-1) are responsible for tuberal parvocellular (arcuate nucleus) and other neuropeptidergic neurons. The existence of multiple progenitor domains whose progeny undergoes intricate tangential migrations as one source of complexity in the neuropeptidergic hypothalamus is the focus of much attention. How neurosecretory cells target axons to the medial eminence and posterior hypophysis is gradually becoming clear and exciting progress has been made on the mechanisms underlying neurovascular interface formation. While rat neuroanatomy and targeted mutations in mice have yielded fundamental knowledge about the neuroendocrine system in mammals, experiments on chick and zebrafish are providing key information about cellular and molecular mechanisms. Looking forward, data from every source will be necessary to unravel the ways in which the environment affects neuroendocrine development with consequences for adult health and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The receptive field structure of long (L) to middle (M) wavelength (L/M) cone-opponent ganglion cells of the parafoveal macaque retina was investigated using drifting gratings. Gratings were luminance, chromatic or selective for the L- or M-cones. Based on these spatial tuning curves, receptive field profiles for the individual cones were derived. Receptive field profiles were coarse compared to single cones, and often could not be described by a simple Gaussian, having shallower flanks. There was a continuum of spatial properties, which blurred any systematic distinction between Type I and Type II receptive fields. Opponent center-surround organization within a single cone was rare. Usually, responses to all four grating types could be described based on the cone receptive field profiles. An exception was a few cells that showed irregularities of amplitude and phase at high spatial frequencies for one or other of the cone isolating conditions. The data are related to standard models of M/L opponent receptive fields and implications for central processing are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flashing light stimulation is often used to investigate the visual system. However, the magnitude of the effect of this stimulus on the various subcortical pathways is not well investigated. The signals of conscious vision are conveyed by the magnocellular, parvocellular and koniocellular pathways. Parvocellular and koniocellular pathways (or more precisely, the L-M opponent and S-cone isolating channels) can be accessed by isoluminant red-green (L-M) and S-cone isolating stimuli, respectively. The main goal of the present study was to explore how costimulation with strong white extrafoveal light flashes alters the perception of stimuli specific to these pathways. Eleven healthy volunteers with negative neurological and ophthalmological history were enrolled for the study. Isoluminance of L-M and S-cone isolating sine-wave gratings was set individually, using the minimum motion procedure. The contrast thresholds for these stimuli as well as for achromatic gratings were determined by an adaptive staircase procedure where subjects had to indicate the orientation (horizontal, oblique or vertical) of the gratings. Thresholds were then determined again while a strong white peripheral light flash was presented 50 ms before each trial. Peripheral light flashes significantly (p < 0.05) increased the contrast thresholds of the achromatic and S-cone isolating stimuli. The threshold elevation was especially marked in case of the achromatic stimuli. However, the contrast threshold for the L-M stimuli was not significantly influenced by the light flashes. We conclude that extrafoveally applied light flashes influence predominantly the perception of achromatic stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational models that predict the spectral sensitivities of primate cone photoreceptors have focussed only on the spectral, not spatial, dimensions. On the ecologically valid task of foraging for fruit, such models predict the M-cone ("green") peak spectral sensitivity 10-20 nm further from the L-cone ("red") sensitivity peak than it is in nature and assume their separation is limited by other visual constraints, such as the requirement of high-acuity spatial vision for closer M and L peak sensitivities. We explore the possibility that a spatio-chromatic analysis can better predict cone spectral tuning without appealing to other visual constraints. We build a computational model of the primate retina and simulate chromatic gratings of varying spatial frequencies using measured spectra. We then implement the case study of foveal processing in routinely trichromatic primates for the task of discriminating fruit and leaf spectra. We perform an exhaustive search for the configurations of M and L cone spectral sensitivities that optimally distinguish the colour patterns within these spectral images. Under such conditions, the model suggests that: (1) a long-wavelength limit is required to constrain the L cone spectral sensitivity to its natural position; (2) the optimal M cone peak spectral sensitivity occurs at ~525 nm, close to the observed position in nature (~535 nm); (3) spatial frequency has a small effect upon the spectral tuning of the cones; (4) a selective pressure toward less correlated M and L spectral sensitivities is provided by the need to reduce noise caused by the luminance variation that occurs in natural scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have shown that behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of processing visual images containing low or high spatial frequency (LSF or HSF) information undergo development after early childhood. However, the maturation of spatial frequency sensitivity during school age has been investigated using abstract stimuli only. The aim of the current study was to assess how LSF and HSF features affect the processing of everyday photographs at the behavioral and electrophysiological levels in children aged 7–15 years and adults. We presented grayscale images containing either animals or vehicles and their luminance-matched modified versions filtered at low or high spatial frequencies. Modulations of classification accuracy, reaction time, and visual event-related potentials (posterior P1 and N1 components) were compared across five developmental groups and three image types. We found disproportionately worse response accuracies for LSF stimuli relative to HSF images in children aged 7 or 8 years, an effect that was accompanied by smaller LSF-evoked P1 amplitudes during this age period. At 7 or 8 years of age, P1 and N1 amplitudes were modulated by HSF and LSF stimuli (P1: HSF > LSF; N1: LSF > HSF), with a gradual shift toward the opposite pattern (P1: LSF > HSF; N1: HSF > LSF) with increasing age. Our results indicate that early cortical processing of both spatial frequency ranges undergo substantial development during school age, with a relative delay of LSF analysis, and underline the utility of our paradigm in tracking the maturation of LSF versus HSF sensitivity in this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental dyslexia is a common learning disability characterized by normal intelligence but difficulty in skills associated with reading, writing and spelling. One of the most prominent, albeit controversial, theories of dyslexia is the magnocellular theory, which suggests that malfunction of the magnocellular system in the brain is responsible for the behavioral deficits. We sought to test the basis of this theory by directly measuring the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), the only location in the brain where the magnocellular and parvocellular streams are spatially disjoint. Using high-resolution proton-density weighted MRI scans, we precisely measured the anatomical boundaries of the LGN in 13 subjects with dyslexia (five female) and 13 controls (three female), all 22–26 years old. The left LGN was significantly smaller in volume in subjects with dyslexia and also differed in shape; no differences were observed in the right LGN. The functional significance of this asymmetry is unknown, but these results are consistent with the magnocellular theory and support theories of dyslexia that involve differences in the early visual system.

Purpose: Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities affecting millions of people worldwide. Although exact causes of dyslexia are not well-known, a deficit in the magnocellular pathway may play a role. We examined possible deficiency of magnocellular, as compared to parvocellular and koniocellular pathway function by measuring luminance and color perception. Methods: Visual stimuli consisted of a series of natural images, divided into layers of luminance, red-green and blue-yellow, which probed magnocellular, parvocellular, and koniocellular pathways, respectively. Thirteen children with dyslexia and 13 sex- and age- matched controls performed three psychophysical tasks. In the first task, subjects were instructed to match the contrast of luminance (magno) and red-green (parvo) images to that of the blue-yellow (konio) images. In the second task, subjects detected the isoluminant point of red-green images to probe parvocellular pathway. In the third task, temporal processing was assessed by measuring reaction time and percentage of correct responses in an identification task using four categories of images, activating all three pathways. Results: The dyslexic group had significantly elevated luminance and color contrast thresholds and higher isoluminant point ratio in comparison to the control group. Furthermore, they had significantly less correct responses than the control group for the blue-yellow images. Conclusion: We may suggest that dyslexic subjects might suffer from both magnocellular and parvocellular deficits. Moreover, our results show partial impairment of the koniocellular pathway. Thus, dyslexia might be associated with deficits in all three visual pathways.

Despite much current research into the visual processing style of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), understanding of the neural mechanisms is lagging, especially with respect to the contributions of the overlapping dichotomies of magnocellular/parvocellular (afferent neural pathways), global/local (perception) and dorsal/ventral (cortical streams). Here, we addressed this deficiency by measuring inspection times (ITs) for novel global/local stimuli as well as recording nonlinear visually evoked potentials (VEPs), in particular, magnocellular and parvocellular temporal efficiencies. The study was conducted on a group of male ASD children and a typically developing (TD) group matched for mean age and mean non-verbal intelligence, as measured by the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The IT results did not differ between groups, however a negative correlation between global IT and Raven’s score was found in the ASD group, that was not evident in the TD group. Nonlinear VEP showed the ASD group had smaller amplitude parvocellular-generated second order responses compared to the TD group. This is a sign of improved temporal responsiveness in ASD vs. TD groups. Principal Component Analysis linked global IT, non-verbal intelligence scores and VEP parvocellular efficiency in a single factor for the ASD but not the TD group. The results are suggestive of a constraint on pathways available for cognitive response in the ASD group, with temporal processing for those with ASD becoming more reliant on the parvocellular pathway.

Schizophrenia patients have well-established deficits in facial emotion perception, which contribute to their poor social functioning. A number of studies have related these deficits to a differential dysfunction in the magnocellular (M) versus parvocellular (P) visual pathway. We assessed 35 schizophrenia patients and 35 healthy individuals on an emotion identification task, in which facial stimuli were either unaltered (broad spatial frequency, BSF) or manipulated to contain only high (HSF) or low (LSF) spatial frequencies, thereby respectively biasing the visual system toward the P- or M- pathways. As expected, patients were less accurate and slower in recognizing emotions across all conditions, relative to controls. Performance was best in the BSF condition followed by the HSF and finally the LSF condition, in both groups. A significant group by spatial frequency interaction reflected a smaller magnitude of impairment in the HSF condition, compared to the other two conditions that preferentially engage the M-system. These findings are consistent with studies showing a differential M-pathway abnormality in schizophrenia with a less pronounced impairment in P-function. The current study suggests that patients have less difficulty extracting emotional content from faces when LSFs are attenuated and supports the need to remediate basic visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite much current research into the visual processing style of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), understanding of the neural mechanisms is lagging, especially with respect to the contributions of the overlapping dichotomies of magnocellular/parvocellular (afferent neural pathways), global/local (perception) and dorsal/ventral (cortical streams). Here, we addressed this deficiency by measuring inspection times (ITs) for novel global/local stimuli as well as recording nonlinear visually evoked potentials (VEPs), in particular, magnocellular and parvocellular temporal efficiencies. The study was conducted on a group of male ASD children and a typically developing (TD) group matched for mean age and mean non-verbal intelligence, as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices. The IT results did not differ between groups, however a negative correlation between global IT and Raven's score was found in the ASD group, that was not evident in the TD group. Nonlinear VEP showed the ASD group had smaller amplitude parvocellular-generated second order responses compared to the TD group. This is a sign of improved temporal responsiveness in ASD vs. TD groups. Principal Component Analysis linked global IT, non-verbal intelligence scores and VEP parvocellular efficiency in a single factor for the ASD but not the TD group. The results are suggestive of a constraint on pathways available for cognitive response in the ASD group, with temporal processing for those with ASD becoming more reliant on the parvocellular pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Much evidence indicates that humans and other species process large-scale visual information before fine spatial detail. Neurophysiological data obtained with paralyzed eyes suggest that this coarse-to-fine sequence results from spatiotemporal filtering by neurons in the early visual pathway. However, the eyes are normally never stationary: rapid gaze shifts (saccades) incessantly alternate with slow fixational movements. To investigate the consequences of this oculomotor cycle on the dynamics of perception, we combined spectral analysis of visual input signals, neural modeling, and gaze-contingent control of retinal stimulation in humans. We show that the saccade/fixation cycle reformats the flow impinging on the retina in a way that initiates coarse-to-fine processing at each fixation. This finding reveals that the visual system uses oculomotor-induced temporal modulations to sequentially encode different spatial components and suggests that, rather than initiating coarse-to-fine processing, spatiotemporal coupling in the early visual pathway builds on the information dynamics of the oculomotor cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are volumes of information available to process in visual scenes. Visual spatial attention is a critically important selection mechanism that prevents these volumes from overwhelming our visual system's limited-capacity processing resources. We were interested in understanding the effect of the size of the attended area on visual perception. The prevailing model of attended-region size across cognition, perception, and neuroscience is the zoom-lens model. This model stipulates that the magnitude of perceptual processing enhancement is inversely related to the size of the attended region, such that a narrow attended-region facilitates greater perceptual enhancement than a wider region. Yet visual processing is subserved by two major visual pathways (magnocellular and parvocellular) that operate with a degree of independence in early visual processing and encode contrasting visual information. Historically, testing of the zoom-lens has used measures of spatial acuity ideally suited to parvocellular processing. This, therefore, raises questions about the generality of the zoom-lens model to different aspects of visual perception. We found that while a narrow attended-region facilitated spatial acuity and the perception of high spatial frequency targets, it had no impact on either temporal acuity or the perception of low spatial frequency targets. This pattern also held up when targets were not presented centrally. This supports the notion that visual attended-region size has dissociable effects on magnocellular versus parvocellular mediated visual processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994 Vivien Casagrande published a review paper in which she summarized evidence for a koniocellular pathway to visual cortex. Here we try to explain how that review moved the field forward, and summarize some key unanswered questions about koniocellular pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]