Curvature-processing domains in primate V4.
Curvature-processing domains in primate V4.
复制标题
灵长类动物 V4 的曲率处理域
作者：
Tang R;Song Q;Li Y;Zhang R;Cai X;Lu HD
灵长类V4中的神经元对轮廓形状表现出各种类型的选择性，包括曲线、角度和简单形状。这些神经元在V4中是如何组织的仍不清楚。利用本征信号光学成像和双光子钙成像，我们在V4中观察到亚毫米功能区，其中包含的神经元更喜欢曲线轮廓而不是直线轮廓。这些曲率域的大小和反应幅度与取向域相似，但倾向于与这些区域分开。在曲率域中，偏爱圆形或曲线方向的神经元进一步聚集成更精细的子域。然而，单个神经元也具有广泛的轮廓选择性，相邻神经元除了具有共同的形状偏好外，在形状调整方面也表现出相当大的差异。与V4形成强烈对比的是，V1和V2没有这种与轮廓形状相关的区域。这些发现突出了曲率加工在视觉物体识别中的重要性和复杂性，以及V4在这一过程中的关键功能作用。
Neurons in primate V4 exhibit various types of selectivity for contour shapes, including curves, angles, and simple shapes. How are these neurons organized in V4 remains unclear. Using intrinsic signal optical imaging and two-photon calcium imaging, we observed submillimeter functional domains in V4 that contained neurons preferring curved contours over rectilinear ones. These curvature domains had similar sizes and response amplitudes as orientation domains but tended to separate from these regions. Within the curvature domains, neurons that preferred circles or curve orientations clustered further into finer scale subdomains. Nevertheless, individual neurons also had a wide range of contour selectivity, and neighboring neurons exhibited a substantial diversity in shape tuning besides their common shape preferences. In strong contrast to V4, V1 and V2 did not have such contour-shape-related domains. These findings highlight the importance and complexity of curvature processing in visual object recognition and the key functional role of V4 in this process.