Visual Field Map Clusters in Macaque Extrastriate Visual Cortex

The macaque visual cortex contains >30 different functional visual areas, yet surprisingly little is known about the underlying organizational principles that structure its components into a complete "visual" unit. A recent model of visual cortical organization in humans suggests that v...

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Published inThe Journal of neuroscience Vol. 29; no. 21; pp. 7031 - 7039
Main Authors Kolster, Hauke, Mandeville, Joseph B, Arsenault, John T, Ekstrom, Leeland B, Wald, Lawrence L, Vanduffel, Wim
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Soc Neuroscience 27.05.2009
Society for Neuroscience
Subjects
Animals
Brain Mapping
Cluster Analysis
Functional Laterality
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Macaca mulatta
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Oxygen - blood
Photic Stimulation - methods
Visual Cortex - blood supply
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Fields - physiology
Visual Pathways - blood supply
Visual Pathways - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:The macaque visual cortex contains >30 different functional visual areas, yet surprisingly little is known about the underlying organizational principles that structure its components into a complete "visual" unit. A recent model of visual cortical organization in humans suggests that visual field maps are organized as clusters. Clusters minimize axonal connections between individual field maps that represent common visual percepts, with different clusters thought to carry out different functions. Experimental support for this hypothesis, however, is lacking in macaques, leaving open the question of whether it is unique to humans or a more general model for primate vision. Here we show, using high-resolution blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging data in the awake monkey at 7 T, that the middle temporal area (area MT/V5) and its neighbors are organized as a cluster with a common foveal representation and a circular eccentricity map. This novel view on the functional topography of area MT/V5 and satellites indicates that field map clusters are evolutionarily preserved and may be a fundamental organizational principle of the Old World primate visual cortex.
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H. Kolster's and J. T. Arsenault's present address: Laboratorium voor Neurofysiologie en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Medical School, Campus Gasthuisberg, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0518-09.2009