Orientation mosaic in barn owl’s visual Wulst revealed by optical imaging: comparison with cat and monkey striate and extra-striate areas

Abstract

Using the technique of intrinsic signal optical imaging, orientation preference maps were obtained from the Wulst of the barn owl in the area that represents central vision, and from the visual cortices (V1 and V2) of cat and marmoset monkey. Iso-orientation domains in barn owl’s visual Wulst were patch-like structures with an inter-patch distance of ∼0.9 mm, arranged in a pinwheel-like manner around singularity points. The size of the iso-orientation domains in barn owl was larger than those found in area V1, but comparable to those found in area V2, of cat and monkey. Superficial layers of the owl visual Wulst may be equivalent to extra-striate visual areas of primates and carnivores, as already suggested by electrophysiologists discussing the much increased radial dimensions of the Wulst compared with neocortex in mammals.