Orientation Preference Maps in Microcebus murinus Reveal Size-Invariant Design Principles in Primate Visual Cortex.

ABSTRACT: Orientation preference maps (OPMs) are a prominent feature of primary visual cortex (V1) organization in many primates and carnivores. In rodents, neurons are not organized in OPMs but are instead interspersed in a "salt and pepper" fashion, although clusters of orientation-selective neurons have been reported. Does this fundamental difference reflect the existence of a lower size limit for orientation columns (OCs) below which they cannot be scaled down with decreasing V1 size? To address this question, we examined V1 of one of the smallest living primates, the 60-g prosimian mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus). Using chronic intrinsic signal imaging, we found that mouse lemur V1 contains robust OCs, which are arranged in a pinwheel-like fashion. OC size in mouse lemurs was found to be only

SUBMITTER: Ho CLA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9026768 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature