FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF VISUAL CORTEX

视觉皮层的功能组织

• 批准号: 2684525
• 负责人: DAVID FITZPATRICK
• 金额: $ 21.33万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1987
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1987-09-01 至 2000-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2684525
• 关键词: Scandentia; behavioral /social science research tag; brain mapping; cell type; developmental neurobiology; histology; intercellular connection; neural information processing; neuronal transport; single cell analysis; tissue /cell preparation; visual cortex; visual pathways; visual perception; visual stimulus

Neurons in visual cortex exhibit a remarkable selectivity for certain features of the visual stimulus--a selectivity that must reflect an underlying specificity in the organization of their synaptic connections. Much of the anatomical specificity in cortical circuitry depends on the precise arrangement of intracortical axon arbors. For example, intrinsic axon arbors are responsible for interconnecting selected subsets of neurons that reside in different cortical layers; they are also responsible for selectively linking columns of neurons that share similar response properties. The proposed experiments focus on another dimension of intrinsic axonal connections which, while less conspicuous, may be no less important: the arrangement of axonal connections with respect to the map of visual space. The goal is to determine whether specificity in the topographic arrangement of intracortical axons, like laminar and modular specificity, plays a role in shaping the visual responses of cortical neurons. Previous studies have shown that individual cortical neurons often give rise to axon arbors that are elongated across the cortical surface, extending farther and giving rise to more terminals along one axis of the map of visual space than along the others. A combination of anatomical and physiological methods will be used to: (1) examine the relaxation between this anisotropy in connections and the preference of cortical neurons for oriented edges and (2) examine how this anisotropy might contribute to the response properties of cortical neurons. These experiments should provide new insights into the rules that govern the organization of local circuits in visual cortex--information that is crucial for understanding the neural basis of visual perception.

视觉皮层中的神经元表现出某些明显的选择性 视觉刺激的特征 - 一种必须反映的选择性 其突触连接组织的基本特异性。 皮质回路中的许多解剖学特异性取决于 皮质内轴突乔木的精确排列。 例如，内在 Axon Arbors负责互连神经元的选定子集 它位于不同的皮质层；他们也负责 有选择地链接共享相似响应的神经元列 特性。 提出的实验侧重于 固有的轴突连接虽然不太明显，但可能同样不少 重要：轴突连接相对于地图的布置 视觉空间。 目的是确定是否在 皮质内轴突的地形布置，例如层状和模块化 特异性，在塑造皮质的视觉反应中起作用 神经元。 先前的研究表明，单个皮质神经元 通常会引起轴突的轴突，这些轴突在皮质上伸长 表面，延伸更远，沿着一个轴产生更多的终端 视觉空间地图而不是沿着其他空间。 组合 解剖学和生理方法将用于：（1）检查 这种各向异性之间的放松与连接的偏好 用于定向边缘的皮质神经元，（2）检查这种各向异性如何 可能有助于皮质神经元的反应特性。 这些 实验应提供有关管理规则的新见解 在视觉皮层中的本地电路组织 - 信息是 对于理解视觉感知的神经基础至关重要。