Dynamic properties of neurons in cortical area MT in alert and anaesthetized macaque monkeys

被引:106
作者
Pack, CC [1 ]
Berezovskii, VK [1 ]
Born, RT [1 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Sch Med, Dept Neurobiol, Boston, MA 02115 USA
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会; 美国国家卫生研究院;
关键词
D O I
10.1038/414905a
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
In order to see the world with high spatial acuity, an animal must sample the visual image with many detectors that restrict their analyses to extremely small regions of space. The visual cortex must then integrate the information from these localized receptive fields to obtain a more global picture of the surrounding environment. We studied this process in single neurons within the middle temporal visual area (MT) of macaques using stimuli that produced conflicting local and global information about stimulus motion. Neuronal responses in alert animals initially reflected predominantly the ambiguous local motion features, but gradually converged to an unambiguous global representation. When the same animals were anaesthetized, the integration of local motion signals was markedly impaired even though neuronal responses remained vigorous and directional tuning characteristics were intact. Our results suggest that anaesthesia preferentially affects the visual processing responsible for integrating local signals into a global visual representation.
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页码:905 / 908
页数:4
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