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A morphological basis for orientation tuning in primary visual cortex.
- Source :
-
Nature Neuroscience . Aug2004, Vol. 7 Issue 8, p872-879. 8p. 4 Color Photographs, 1 Black and White Photograph, 4 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2004
-
Abstract
- Feedforward connections are thought to be important in the generation of orientation-selective responses in visual cortex by establishing a bias in the sampling of information from regions of visual space that lie along a neuron's axis of preferred orientation. It remains unclear, however, which structural elements-dendrites or axons-are ultimately responsible for conveying this sampling bias. To explore this question, we have examined the spatial arrangement of feedforward axonal connections that link non-oriented neurons in layer 4 and orientation-selective neurons in layer 2/3 of visual cortex in the tree shrew. Target sites of labeled boutons in layer 2/3 resulting from focal injections of biocytin in layer 4 show an orientation-specific axial bias that is sufficient to confer orientation tuning to layer 2/3 neurons. We conclude that the anisotropic arrangement of axon terminals is the principal source of the orientation bias contributed by feedforward connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *MENTAL orientation
*VISUAL cortex
*OCCIPITAL lobe
*NEURONS
*NERVOUS system
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10976256
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Nature Neuroscience
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 13937155
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1287