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Visual processing in pigeon nucleus rotundus: Luminance, color, motion, and looming subdivisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Yong-Chang Wang ,
Shiying Jiang  and
Barrie J. Frost
Yong-Chang Wang
Affiliation:
Departments of Physiology and Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
Shiying Jiang
Affiliation:
Departments of Physiology and Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
Barrie J. Frost
Affiliation:
Departments of Physiology and Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
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Abstract

The responses of single cells to luminance, color and computer-generated spots, bars, kinematograms, and motion-in-depth stimuli were studied in the nucleus rotundus of pigeons. Systematic electrode penetrations revealed that there are several functionally distinct subdivisions within rotundus where six classes of visual-selective cells cluster. Cells in the dorsal-posterior zone of the nucleus respond selectively to motion in depth (i.e. an expanding or contracting figure in the visual field). Most cells recorded from the dorsal-anterior region responded selectively to the color of the stimulus. The firing rate of the cells in the anterior-central zone, however, is dramatically modulated by changing the level of illumination over the whole visual field. Cells in the ventral subdivision strongly respond to moving occlusion edges and very small moving objects, with either excitatory or inhibitory responses. These results indicate that visual information processing of color, ambient illumination, and motion in depth are segregated into different subdivisions at the level of nucleus rotundus in the avian brain.

Keywords

Single-cell recordingNucleus rotundusPigeonMotion in depthColorLuminanceOcclusion edges
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 21 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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