Orientation selectivity in a model of primary visual cortex with and without orientation map

COGNO, SOLEDAD; MATO, GERMÁN

BMC NEUROSCIENCE

BIOMED CENTRAL LTD

Año: 2015 vol. 16

1471-2202

Since its discovery by Hubel and Wiesel in 1959, orientation selectivity has been observed in every mammal for which the neuronal response selectivity of primary visual cortex (V1) has been examined. In some animals, like cats and monkeys, anatomically close V1 neurons have similar preferred orientations, giving rise to maps of orientation preferences. However, sharp selectivity is also observed in mice, squirrels and rats, whose V1 has no orientation map. This means that neurons with different preferred orientations are intermixed. This second scenario is called salt-and-pepper organization and leads to question the structural organization of the intracortical connections.