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Liu ML, Liu YP, Guo XX, Wu ZY, Zhang XT, Roe AW, Hu JM. Orientation selectivity mapping in the visual cortex. Prog Neurobiol 2024:102656. [PMID: 39009108 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2024.102656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2024] [Revised: 06/17/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024]
Abstract
The orientation map is one of the most well-studied functional maps of the visual cortex. However, results from the literature are of different qualities. Clear boundaries among different orientation domains and blurred uncertain distinctions were shown in different studies. These unclear imaging results will lead to an inaccuracy in depicting cortical structures, and the lack of consideration in experimental design will also lead to biased depictions of the cortical features. How we accurately define orientation domains will impact the entire field of research. In this study, we test how spatial frequency (SF), stimulus size, location, chromatic, and data processing methods affect the orientation functional maps (including a large area of dorsal V4, and parts of dorsal V1) acquired by intrinsic signal optical imaging. Our results indicate that, for large imaging fields, large grating stimuli with mixed SF components should be considered to acquire the orientation map. A diffusion model image enhancement based on the difference map could further improve the map quality. In addition, the similar outcomes of achromatic and chromatic gratings indicate two alternative types of afferents from LGN, pooling in V1 to generate cue-invariant orientation selectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mei-Lan Liu
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
| | - Yi-Peng Liu
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Xin-Xia Guo
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Zhi-Yi Wu
- Eye Center, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310010, China
| | - Xiao-Tong Zhang
- College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China
| | - Anna Wang Roe
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310012, China; The State Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
| | - Jia-Ming Hu
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310012, China.
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Bowen Z, Shilling-Scrivo K, Losert W, Kanold PO. Fractured columnar small-world functional network organization in volumes of L2/3 of mouse auditory cortex. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgae074. [PMID: 38415223 PMCID: PMC10898513 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
The sensory cortices of the brain exhibit large-scale functional topographic organization, such as the tonotopic organization of the primary auditory cortex (A1) according to sound frequency. However, at the level of individual neurons, layer 2/3 (L2/3) A1 appears functionally heterogeneous. To identify if there exists a higher-order functional organization of meso-scale neuronal networks within L2/3 that bridges order and disorder, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of pyramidal neurons to identify networks in three-dimensional volumes of L2/3 A1 in awake mice. Using tonal stimuli, we found diverse receptive fields with measurable colocalization of similarly tuned neurons across depth but less so across L2/3 sublayers. These results indicate a fractured microcolumnar organization with a column radius of ∼50 µm, with a more random organization of the receptive field over larger radii. We further characterized the functional networks formed within L2/3 by analyzing the spatial distribution of signal correlations (SCs). Networks show evidence of Rentian scaling in physical space, suggesting effective spatial embedding of subnetworks. Indeed, functional networks have characteristics of small-world topology, implying that there are clusters of functionally similar neurons with sparse connections between differently tuned neurons. These results indicate that underlying the regularity of the tonotopic map on large scales in L2/3 is significant tuning diversity arranged in a hybrid organization with microcolumnar structures and efficient network topologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zac Bowen
- Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic, Riverdale, MD 20737, USA
| | - Kelson Shilling-Scrivo
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21230, USA
| | - Wolfgang Losert
- Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Patrick O Kanold
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 20215, USA
- Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 20215, USA
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Artificial Visual System for Orientation Detection. ELECTRONICS 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/electronics11040568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
The human visual system is one of the most important components of the nervous system, responsible for visual perception. The research on orientation detection, in which neurons of the visual cortex respond only to a line stimulus in a particular orientation, is an important driving force of computer vision and biological vision. However, the principle underlying orientation detection remains a mystery. In order to solve this mystery, we first propose a completely new mechanism that explains planar orientation detection in a quantitative manner. First, we assume that there are planar orientation-detective neurons which respond only to a particular planar orientation locally and that these neurons detect local planar orientation information based on nonlinear interactions that take place on the dendrites. Then, we propose an implementation of these local planar orientation-detective neurons based on their dendritic computations, use them to extract the local planar orientation information, and infer the global planar orientation information from the local planar orientation information. Furthermore, based on this mechanism, we propose an artificial visual system (AVS) for planar orientation detection and other visual information processing. In order to prove the effectiveness of our mechanism and the AVS, we conducted a series of experiments on rectangular images which included rectangles of various sizes, shapes and positions. Computer simulations show that the mechanism can perfectly perform planar orientation detection regardless of their sizes, shapes and positions in all experiments. Furthermore, we compared the performance of both AVS and a traditional convolution neural network (CNN) on planar orientation detection and found that AVS completely outperformed CNN in planar orientation detection in terms of identification accuracy, noise resistance, computation and learning cost, hardware implementation and reasonability.
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Orczyk JJ, Barczak A, Costa-Faidella J, Kajikawa Y. Cross Laminar Traveling Components of Field Potentials due to Volume Conduction of Non-Traveling Neuronal Activity in Macaque Sensory Cortices. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7578-7590. [PMID: 34321312 PMCID: PMC8425975 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3225-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Field potentials (FPs) reflect neuronal activities in the brain, and often exhibit traveling peaks across recording sites. While traveling FPs are interpreted as propagation of neuronal activity, not all studies directly reveal such propagating patterns of neuronal activation. Neuronal activity is associated with transmembrane currents that form dipoles and produce negative and positive fields. Thereby, FP components reverse polarity between those fields and have minimal amplitudes at the center of dipoles. Although their amplitudes could be smaller, FPs are never flat even around these reversals. What occurs around the reversal has not been addressed explicitly, although those are rationally in the middle of active neurons. We show that sensory FPs around the reversal appeared with peaks traveling across cortical laminae in macaque sensory cortices. Interestingly, analyses of current source density did not depict traveling patterns but lamina-delimited current sinks and sources. We simulated FPs produced by volume conduction of a simplified 2 dipoles' model mimicking sensory cortical laminar current source density components. While FPs generated by single dipoles followed the temporal patterns of the dipole moments without traveling peaks, FPs generated by concurrently active dipole moments appeared with traveling components in the vicinity of dipoles by superimposition of individually non-traveling FPs generated by single dipoles. These results indicate that not all traveling FP are generated by traveling neuronal activity, and that recording positions need to be taken into account to describe FP peak components around active neuronal populations.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Field potentials (FPs) generated by neuronal activity in the brain occur with fields of opposite polarity. Likewise, in the cerebral cortices, they have mirror-imaged waveforms in upper and lower layers. We show that FPs appear like traveling across the cortical layers. Interestingly, the traveling FPs occur without traveling components of current source density, which represents transmembrane currents associated with neuronal activity. These seemingly odd findings are explained using current source density models of multiple dipoles. Concurrently active, non-traveling dipoles produce FPs as mixtures of FPs produced by individual dipoles, and result in traveling FP waveforms as the mixing ratio depends on the distances from those dipoles. The results suggest that not all traveling FP components are associated with propagating neuronal activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- John J Orczyk
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962
| | - Annamaria Barczak
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962
| | - Jordi Costa-Faidella
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962
- Brainlab - Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia 08035, Spain
- Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia 08035, Spain
- Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain, Barcelona, Catalonia 08950
| | - Yoshinao Kajikawa
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016
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Rockland KS. Cytochrome oxidase "blobs": a call for more anatomy. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 226:2793-2806. [PMID: 34382115 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02360-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
An ordered relation of structure and function has been a cornerstone in thinking about brain organization. Like the brain itself, however, this is not straightforward and is confounded both by functional intricacy and structural plasticity (many routes to a given outcome). As a striking case of putative structure-function correlation, this mini-review focuses on the relatively well-characterized pattern of cytochrome oxidase (CO) blobs (aka "patches" or "puffs") in the supragranular layers of macaque monkey visual cortex. The pattern is without doubt visually compelling, and the semi-dichotomous array of CO+ blobs and CO- interblobs is consistent with multiple studies reporting compartment-specific preferential connectivity and distinctive physiological response properties. Nevertheless, as briefly reviewed here, the finer anatomical organization of this system is surprisingly under-investigated, and the relation to functional aspects, therefore, unclear. Microcircuitry, cell type, and three-dimensional spatiotemporal level investigations of the CO+ CO- pattern are needed and may open new views to structure-function organization of visual cortex, and to phylogenetic and ontogenetic comparisons across nonhuman primates (NHP), and between NHP and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen S Rockland
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, 72 East Concord St., Boston, MA, 02118, USA.
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Guan SC, Ju NS, Tao L, Tang SM, Yu C. Functional organization of spatial frequency tuning in macaque V1 revealed with two-photon calcium imaging. Prog Neurobiol 2021; 205:102120. [PMID: 34252470 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2021] [Revised: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
V1 neurons are functionally organized in orientation columns in primates. Whether spatial frequency (SF) columns also exist is less clear because mixed results have been reported. A definitive solution would be SF functional maps at single-neuron resolution. Here we used two-photon calcium imaging to construct first cellular SF maps in V1 superficial layers of five awake fixating macaques, and studied SF functional organization properties and neuronal tuning characteristics. The SF maps (850 × 850 μm2) showed weak horizontal SF clustering (median clustering index = 1.43 vs. unity baseline), about one sixth as strong as orientation clustering in the same sets of neurons, which argues against a meaningful orthogonal relationship between orientation and SF functional maps. These maps also displayed nearly absent vertical SF clustering between two cortical depths (150 & 300 μm), indicating a lack of SF columnar structures within the superficial layers. The underlying causes might be that most neurons were tuned to a narrow two-octave range of medium frequencies, and many neurons with different SF preferences were often spatially mixed, which disallowed finer grouping of SF tuning. In addition, individual SF tuning functions were often asymmetric, having wider lower frequency branches, which may help encode low SF information for later decoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu-Chen Guan
- PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Nian-Sheng Ju
- School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Louis Tao
- School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Shi-Ming Tang
- PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; IDG-McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Cong Yu
- PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; IDG-McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China; School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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Jang J, Song M, Paik SB. Retino-Cortical Mapping Ratio Predicts Columnar and Salt-and-Pepper Organization in Mammalian Visual Cortex. Cell Rep 2021; 30:3270-3279.e3. [PMID: 32160536 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.02.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2019] [Revised: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 02/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In the mammalian primary visual cortex, neural tuning to stimulus orientation is organized in either columnar or salt-and-pepper patterns across species. For decades, this sharp contrast has spawned fundamental questions about the origin of functional architectures in visual cortex. However, it is unknown whether these patterns reflect disparate developmental mechanisms across mammalian taxa or simply originate from variation of biological parameters under a universal development process. In this work, after the analysis of data from eight mammalian species, we show that cortical organization is predictable by a single factor, the retino-cortical mapping ratio. Groups of species with or without columnar clustering are distinguished by the feedforward sampling ratio, and model simulations with controlled mapping conditions reproduce both types of organization. Prediction from the Nyquist theorem explains this parametric division of the patterns with high accuracy. Our results imply that evolutionary variation of physical parameters may induce development of distinct functional circuitry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeson Jang
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Min Song
- Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Se-Bum Paik
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea; Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
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Hung CP, Callahan-Flintoft C, Fedele PD, Fluitt KF, Odoemene O, Walker AJ, Harrison AV, Vaughan BD, Jaswa MS, Wei M. Abrupt darkening under high dynamic range (HDR) luminance invokes facilitation for high-contrast targets and grouping by luminance similarity. J Vis 2020; 20:9. [PMID: 32663253 PMCID: PMC7424107 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.7.9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
When scanning across a scene, luminance can vary by up to 100,000-to-1 (high dynamic range, HDR), requiring multiple normalizing mechanisms spanning from the retina to the cortex to support visual acuity and recognition. Vision models based on standard dynamic range (SDR) luminance contrast ratios below 100-to-1 have limited ability to generalize to real-world scenes with HDR luminance. To characterize how orientation and luminance are linked in brain mechanisms for luminance normalization, we measured orientation discrimination of Gabor targets under HDR luminance dynamics. We report a novel phenomenon, that abrupt 10- to 100-fold darkening engages contextual facilitation, distorting the apparent orientation of a high-contrast central target. Surprisingly, facilitation was influenced by grouping by luminance similarity, as well as by the degree of luminance variability in the surround. These results challenge vision models based solely on activity normalization and raise new questions that will lead to models that perform better in real-world scenes.
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Song XM, Li M, Xu T, Hu D, Roe AW. Precise Targeting of Single Microelectrodes to Orientation Pinwheel Centers. Bio Protoc 2020; 10:e3643. [PMID: 33659313 DOI: 10.21769/bioprotoc.3643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2019] [Revised: 04/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In the mammalian visual system, early stages of visual form perception begin with orientation selective neurons in primary visual cortex (V1). In many species (including humans, monkeys, tree shrews, cats, and ferrets), these neurons are organized in pinwheel-like orientation columns. To study the functional organization within orientation pinwheels, it is important to target pinwheel subdomains precisely. We therefore developed a technique to provide a quantitative determination of the location of pinwheel centers (PCs). Previous studies relied solely on blood vessel images of the cortical surface to guide electrode penetrations to PCs in orientation maps. However, considerable spatial error remained using this method. In the present study, we improved the accuracy of targeting PCs by ensuring perpendicularity of electrodes and by utilizing the orientation tuning of local field potentials (LFP) recorded at or near the optically determined positions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Mei Song
- Mental Health Center, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, China.,Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Ming Li
- College of Artificial Intelligence, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
| | - Tao Xu
- School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325027, China
| | - Dewen Hu
- College of Artificial Intelligence, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
| | - Anna Wang Roe
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, China.,Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Beaverton, OR 97006, USA
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