Volume 8, Number 10, Article 7, Pages 1-16 doi:10.1167/8.10.7 http://journalofvision.org/8/10/7/ ISSN 1534-7362
Color signals in the primary visual cortex of marmosets
Péter Buzás
National Vision Research Institute of Australia, Carlton, Australia, Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, & Institute of Physiology, Medical School, University of Pécs, Hungary
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Brett A. Szmajda
National Vision Research Institute of Australia, Carlton, Australia, & Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
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Maziar Hashemi-Nezhad
Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Australia
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Bogdan Dreher
Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Australia
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Paul R. Martin
National Vision Research Institute of Australia, Carlton, Australia, & Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
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Abstract

This study concerns the input from short-wavelength sensitive (S) cone photoreceptors to the primary visual cortex (striate cortex, Brodmann area 17, area V1) in marmosets. Signals from S-cones are thought to reach V1 by way of the koniocellular layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. However, it is not known whether the S-cone afferent signals cause selective activation of cytochrome oxidase-rich cortical “blob” domains. To address this question, intrinsic optical signals and extracellular responses of V1 neurons were recorded. Stimuli consisted of drifting achromatic gratings and gratings that stimulated selectively either the S-cones or the medium-long wavelength sensitive (ML) cones. All stimuli produced contrast-dependent activation throughout the imaged regions of V1. The S- and ML-cone-selective stimuli produced activation levels of respectively 30% and 80% of that to achromatic gratings. No spatial variation in the strength of S-cone activation was apparent, and the ratio of S to ML activation was constant across all imaged regions. Consistently, in all of the single neurons recorded from V1, the functional input from S-cones was weaker than the input from ML-cones. We conclude that in the primary visual cortex of marmosets, S-cone signals are uniformly distributed.

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History
Received November 1, 2007; published October 22, 2008
Citation
Buzás, P., Szmajda, B. A., Hashemi-Nezhad, M., Dreher, B., & Martin, P. R. (2008). Color signals in the primary visual cortex of marmosets. Journal of Vision, 8(10):7, 1-16, http://journalofvision.org/8/10/7/, doi:10.1167/8.10.7.
Keywords
color vision, parvocellular, koniocellular, magnocellular
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