Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2021, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (9): 1871-1876.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.303043

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Visual response characteristics of neurons in the second visual area of marmosets

Yin Yang1, 2, #, Ke Chen3, #, Marcello G. P. Rosa4, Hsin-Hao Yu4, Li-Rong Kuang5, Jie Yang2, 6, * #br#   

  1. 1Department of Ophthalmology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; 2College of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; 3School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; 4Department of Physiology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; 5Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; 6Department of Neurology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.
  • Online:2021-09-15 Published:2021-02-05
  • Contact: Jie Yang, MS, yjsh303303@126.com.
  • Supported by:
    his study was supported by travel grants from Monash University and the University of Sichuan (to YY), and Research Grants from the Australian Research Council (No. DP0451206) (to mgpr) and National Health and Medical Research Council (No. 384115) (to MGPR).

PDF

45

Abstract: The physiological characteristics of the marmoset second visual area (V2) are poorly understood compared with those of the primary visual area (V1). In this study, we observed the physiological response characteristics of V2 neurons in four healthy adult marmosets using intracortical tungsten microelectrodes. We recorded 110 neurons in area V2, with receptive fields located between 8° and 15° eccentricity. Most (88.2%) of these neurons were orientation selective, with half-bandwidths typically ranging between 10° and 30°. A significant proportion of neurons (28.2%) with direction selectivity had a direction index greater than 0.5. The vast majority of V2 neurons had separable spatial frequency and temporal frequency curves and, according to this criterion, they were not speed selective. The basic functional response characteristics of neurons in area V2 resemble those found in area V1. Our findings show that area V2 together with V1 are important in primate visual processing, especially in locating objects in space and in detecting an object’s direction of motion. The methods used in this study were approved by the Monash University Animal Ethics Committee, Australia (MARP 2009-2011) in 2009. 

Key words: direction selectivity, electrophysiological recording, marmoset, orientation selectivity, receptive field, second visual area, spatial frequency, speed selectivity, temporal frequency