Visual Response Properties of Neurons in the LGN of Normally Reared and Visually Deprived Macaque Monkeys
1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2 Center for Neural Science, and 3 Department of Psychology, New York University, New York 10003; 4 Department of Neurobiology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5230; and 5 Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madiso...
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Published in | Journal of neurophysiology Vol. 85; no. 5; pp. 2111 - 2129 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Am Phys Soc
01.05.2001
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | 1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
2 Center for Neural Science, and
3 Department of Psychology, New York
University, New York 10003; 4 Department of
Neurobiology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York
11794-5230; and 5 Department of Psychology,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Levitt, Jonathan B.,
Robert
A. Schumer,
S. Murray Sherman,
Peter D. Spear, and
J. Anthony Movshon.
Visual Response Properties of Neurons in the LGN of Normally
Reared and Visually Deprived Macaque Monkeys. J. Neurophysiol. 85: 2111-2129, 2001. It is now well
appreciated that parallel retino-geniculo-cortical pathways exist in
the monkey as in the cat, the species in which parallel visual pathways
were first and most thoroughly documented. What remains unclear is
precisely how many separate pathways pass through the parvo- and
magnocellular divisions of the macaque lateral geniculate nucleus
(LGN), what relationships homologous or otherwise these pathways have
to the cat's X, Y, and W pathways, and whether these are affected by
visual deprivation. To address these issues of classification and
trans -species comparison, we used achromatic stimuli to
obtain an extensive set of quantitative measurements of receptive field
properties in the parvo- and magnocellular laminae of the LGN of nine
macaque monkeys: four normally reared and five monocularly deprived of
vision by lid suture near the time of birth. In agreement with previous
studies, we find that on average magnocellular neurons differ from
parvocellular neurons by having shorter response latencies to optic
chiasm stimulation, greater sensitivity to luminance contrast, and
better temporal resolution. Magnocellular laminae are also
distinguished by containing neurons that summate luminance over their
receptive fields nonlinearly (Y cells) and whose temporal response
phases decrease with increasing stimulus contrast (indicative of a
contrast gain control mechanism). We found little evidence for major
differences between magno- and parvocellular neurons on the basis of
most spatial parameters except that at any eccentricity, the neurons
with the smallest receptive field centers tended to be parvocellular.
All parameters were distributed unimodally and continuously through the
parvo- and magnocellular populations, giving no indications of
subpopulations within each division. Monocular deprivation led to clear
anatomical effects: cells in deprived-eye laminae were pale and
shrunken compared with those in nondeprived eye laminae, and Cat-301
immunoreactivity in deprived laminae was essentially uniformly
abolished. However, deprivation had only subtle effects on the response
properties of LGN neurons. Neurons driven by the deprived eye in
both magno- and parvocellular laminae had lower nonlinearity indices
(i.e., summed signals across their receptive fields more linearly) and were somewhat less responsive. In magnocellular laminae driven by the
deprived eye, neuronal response latencies to stimulation of the
optic chiasm were slightly shorter than those in the nondeprived laminae, and receptive field surrounds were a bit stronger. No other
response parameters were affected by deprivation, and there was no
evidence for loss of a specific cell class as in the cat. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0022-3077 1522-1598 |
DOI: | 10.1152/jn.2001.85.5.2111 |