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Differential contributions of magnocellular and parvocellular pathways to the contrast response of neurons in bush baby primary visual cortex (V1)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2000

JOHN D. ALLISON
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
PETER MELZER
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
YUCHUAN DING
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Present address: Wayne State University, University Health Center, Neurological Surgery Department, Detroit, MI 48201.
A.B. BONDS
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
VIVIEN A. CASAGRANDE
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville

Abstract

How neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) of primates process parallel inputs from the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is not completely understood. To investigate whether signals from the two pathways are integrated in the cortex, we recorded contrast-response functions (CRFs) from 20 bush baby V1 neurons before, during, and after pharmacologically inactivating neural activity in either the contralateral LGN M or P layers. Inactivating the M layer reduced the responses of V1 neurons (n = 10) to all stimulus contrasts and significantly elevated (t = 8.15, P < 0.01) their average contrast threshold from 8.04 (± 4.1)% contrast to 22.46 (± 6.28)% contrast. M layer inactivation also significantly reduced (t = 4.06, P < 0.01) the average peak response amplitude. Inactivating the P layer did not elevate the average contrast threshold of V1 neurons (n = 10), but significantly reduced (t = 4.34, P < 0.01) their average peak response amplitude. These data demonstrate that input from the M pathway can account for the responses of V1 neurons to low stimulus contrasts and also contributes to responses to high stimulus contrasts. The P pathway appears to influence mainly the responses of V1 neurons to high stimulus contrasts. None of the cells in our sample, which included cells in all output layers of V1, appeared to receive input from only one pathway. These findings support the view that many V1 neurons integrate information about stimulus contrast carried by the LGN M and P pathways.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

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