Intracortical Connections Underlying Cortical Function

视觉信息由视神经传递到主要的 外侧膝状体核（LGN）， 将项目转移到大脑皮层的两个主要区域， 叫做17区和18区 当视觉中的单个细胞 通路响应视觉刺激，该刺激被认为是 进入细胞的“感受野”。“过去的发现表明 视觉皮层中的一些细胞只对刺激做出反应， 特定位置和具有特定属性（例如 一条线的方向，或在某个方向上的运动）， 可能相当复杂。 发现皮层细胞 以列的方式组织，列中的单元格 共享对偏好的视觉刺激的敏感性。 本研究 将检查17区的皮层连接， 水平地，在列之间。 细胞染料标记， 放射自显影术，以及光学记录的新方法将是 用于可视化连接的解剖结构。 生理 记录在一个新开发的准备一个孤立的切片 将揭示这些水平连接的功能 在突触水平上。 这些研究将共同阐明 在动物视觉的广阔区域上的视觉信息 世界都整合在视觉皮层中。 的结果 新的方法将是非常重要的视觉科学， 对神经科学和信息的其他领域产生影响 加工研究。

Visual information is carried by the optic nerves to a major center called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which in turn projects to two major areas of the cortex of the brain, called Areas 17 and 18. When a single cell in the visual pathway responds to a visual stimulus, that stimulus is said to be in the cell's "receptive field." Past discoveries have shown that some cells in the visual cortex only respond to stimuli in particular locations and having particular properties (such as orientation of a line, or movement in a certain direction), which may be quite complex. Cortical cells were discovered to be organized in a columnar fashion, where cells within a column share sensitivity to a preferred visual stimulus. This study will examine the cortical connections in Area 17 that extend horizontally, among the columns. Cellular dye labels, autoradiography, and the new methods of optical recording will be used to visualize the anatomy of the connections. Physiological recordings in a newly developed preparation of an isolated slice of cortex will reveal how these horizontal connections function at the synaptic level. Together these studies will clarify how visual information over a wide region of the animal's visual world are integrated in the visual cortex. The results of this novel approach will be very important for visual science, and may have impact on other areas of neuroscience and information processing studies.