The Visual Cortex Flashcards
What are two ways we can record electrical activity in the brain?
EEG
Intra/extracellular recordings
What is an EEG?
Amplifies evoked potentials produced by large numbers of neurons
What are intra/extracellular recordings?
Measure activity of a single neuron, using a microelectrode
What do both PET and fMRI show?
Metabolic activity
How does PET work?
Takes a radioactive form of glucose
X-rays cause positron to be emitted
Where do optic nerves from the retinal ganglion cells meet?
The optic chiasm
Where are images from the left visual field processed?
In the right hemisphere
Where are images from the right visual field processed?
In the left hemisphere
Where do optic tracts from the optic chiasm project to?
The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the thalamus (90%)
The superior colliculus (10%)
Where do visual signals from the LGN travel?
The occipital lobe, the visual receiving area
What is the visual receiving area also called?
The striate cortex due to its striped appearance
What cells are present in the LGN?
Parvocellular and magnocellular
What is the cell body size, number, conduction speed, response type, receptive field size, percepts, and colour of p-cells?
Cell body = small
Number = many
Conduction = slow
Response = sustained
Receptive field = small
Percepts = high spatial detail
Colour = colour
What is the cell body size, number, conduction speed, response type, receptive field size, percepts, and colour of m-cells?
Cell body = large
Number = few
Conduction = rapid
Response - transient
Receptive field = large
Percepts = motion sensitive
Colour = black and white
What is the geniculostriate pathway?
P-cells and some m-cells go to the LGN
Then project to the primary (V1) and secondary (V2) cortex in the occipital lobe
What are the layers of the LGN?
6 layers, each with a retinotopic map
Magno -> 4Calpha, Parvo -> 4Cbeta
What is a retinotopic map?
Adjacent neurons correspond to spatially related points on the retina
What is the tectopulvinar pathway?
Remaining m-cells project to the superior colliculi of the tectum (part of brainstem, guides visual attention)
Then projects to thalamus: pulvinar and lateral posterior nuclei
Then to V2 and beyond
What does the tectopulvinar path control?
Eye movements, fixations, detection/orientation to visual stimuli, motion and location
What do layers 2 and 3 of the striate cortex contain?
Blobs = sensitive to wavelength but not orientation
Interblobs = area between blobs, sensitive to orientation but not wavelength (parvo only)
What did Hubel and Wiesel do?
Found cells in V1 that responded well to certain stimuli
What are simple cells?
Layer 4
Respond to a bar or line in a particular location on the retina in a specific location
What are complex cells?
Layers 2/3
Responds to a line or bar in a particular location on the retina that has a specific orientation and is moving in a certain direction
What are hypercomplex (end-stopped) cells?
Beyond V1
Responds to a bar, corner, or angle having a certain length or width in a particular location on the retina that has a specific orientation and is moving in a certain direction
What is a location column?
Cells respond to stimuli from the same retinal location
What is an ocular dominance column?
Cells respond to stimuli presented to one eye only
What is an orientation column?
Cells respond to line stimuli having the same orientation
-orientation columns differ in orientation selectivity by 10°)
What is a hypercolumn?
A region containing a single location column, which contains left and right ocular dominance columns, which contain the set of orientation columns from 0° to 180°
What is V3 sensitive to?
Moving edges of a certain orientation?
What is V3 believed to handle?
Perception of forms and local motion
Where does V3 project?
To the temporal lobe
What do cells in V4 respond to?
Perceived colour of a surface but not the wavelength
Where does V4 project?
To the temporal lobe