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5: Retina to Cortex
PSYC102
10/15/2019
Overview
Exam 1 on Thursday!
Basic processing in LGN and V1
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Retina to LGN to Primary Visual
Cortex
Optic nerve
Optic chiasm
Optic radiation
RODS
CONES
Two types of photoreceptors project to two different
ganglion cell types
Rods ‐> M‐ganglion cells, Magno layers of LGN
Cones ‐> P‐ganglion cells, Parvo layers of LGN 4
Distinct pathways project to distinct
destinations in LGN.
Left lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)
Parvocellular layers
Magnocellular
6 5 layers
4 3 2
R L
R L L 1
R
Ocular dominance layers
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The Retinotopic Map in the LGN
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Figure 4.2 Retinotopic mapping of neurons in the LGN. The neurons at A, B, and C in layer 6 of the LGN have receptive fields located at
positions A’, B’, and C’ on the retina. 7
Receptive fields tile the visual field
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Retinotopic maps are best visualized on a flattened cortex
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Retinotopic maps are best visualized on a flattened cortex
Macaque primary visual cortex
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The Map on the Cortex ‐ continued
• Cortical magnification
– Fovea has more cortical space than expected
• Fovea accounts for 1% of retina
• Signals from fovea account for 8% to 10% of the visual cortex
• This provides extra processing for high‐acuity tasks
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Cortical magnification
Visual Space Representation in
Primary Visual Cortex
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20
9
15
6
10
3 5
0 0
‐5
‐3
‐10
‐6
‐15
‐9 ‐20
0 10 20 30 40
‐12
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Cortical Magnification: Representation of letters in the top image
activate the same proportion of V1
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Eccentricity maps – wave of activation moves from foveal representation to
peripheral representation (posterior to anterior in cortex)
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Polar angle map
Contralateral mapping of visual field to cortex
Inverted Up/Down
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Functional properties of cells in visual cortex:
V1 (primary visual cortex)
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Ocular dominance columns
• Neurons in primary visual cortex initially respond best to one eye
• Neurons with the same preference are organized into columns
• The columns alternate in a left‐right pattern every .25 to .50 mm across
the cortex
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Image courtesy of Jonathan Horton, UCSF
Single unit recordings in V1:
Orientation selectivity in simple cells
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Center surround RFs
in LGN synapse onto
the simple cells of
primary visual
cortex. The spatial
arrangement of the
specific ganglion
cells that feed into a
simple cell creates
the receptive field
of the simple cell.
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Figure 4.10 All of the cortical neurons encountered along track A respond best to horizontal bars (indicated by the red] lines cutting across
the electrode track.) All of the neurons along track B respond best to bars oriented at 45 degrees. 24
The Primary Visual Cortex:
Hubel and Wiesel’s ‘Ice Cube Model’ for the representation of
orientation and ocular dominance.
Orientation columns
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Orientation Map in V1
Remember: V1 is retinotopically organized (map‐like),
so there are cells selective for each orientation in each little 26
chunk of the map
Beyond V1: Dorsal and Ventral pathways
Parietal lobe
Temporal lobe
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Parvocellular layers
(3‐6) Functional
Specialization
Magnocellular layers
(1 & 2)
And low‐light vision
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Dorsal and Ventral visual pathways: classic account
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Lesion or Ablation Experiments to assess function of visual
pathways
• First, an animal is trained to indicate perceptual
capacities
• Second, a specific part of the brain is removed or
destroyed
• Third, the animal is retrained to determine which
perceptual abilities remain
• The results reveal which portions of the brain are
responsible for specific behaviors
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What and Where Pathways
• Ungerleider and Mishkin (circa 1980)
– Object discrimination
problem
• Monkey is shown an object
• Then presented with two choice
task
• Reward given for detecting the
target object
– Landmark
discrimination problem
• Monkey is trained to pick the
food well next to a cylinder
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What and Where Pathways
• Ungerleider and Mishkin (cont.)
– Using ablation, part of the
parietal lobe was removed
from half the monkeys and
part of the temporal lobe
was removed from the
other half
– Retesting the monkeys
showed that:
• Removal of temporal lobe tissue
resulted in problems with the object
discrimination task ‐ What pathway
• Removal of parietal lobe tissue resulted
in problems with the landmark
discrimination task ‐ Where pathway
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Dorsal and Ventral pathways:
a second interpretation
Milner and Goodale’s idea:
• Dorsal pathway (parietal cortex): not where, but ‘how’
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What and How Pathways –
Neuropsycholgical Evidence
• Behavior of patient D.F.
– Damage to ventral pathway due to carbon
monoxide intoxication in 1988
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• Behavior of patient D.F.
– Damage to ventral pathway due to gas leak
D.F. can’t tell you the orientation of the slot, but can
actively post a letter into it
Ventral stream = what, Dorsal stream = How. 35
What vs how (ventral damage)
Exam 1 on Thursday!
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