Abstract
The images projected onto the retina can vary widely for a single object. Despite these transformations primates can quickly and reliably recognize objects. At the neural level, transformation tolerance in monkey inferotemporal cortex is affected by the temporal contiguity statistics of the visual input. Here we investigated whether temporal contiguity learning also influences the basic feature detectors in lower levels of the visual hierarchy, in particular the independent coding of orientation and spatial frequency (SF) in primary visual cortex. Eight male Long Evans rats were repeatedly exposed to a temporal transition between two gratings that changed in SF and had either the same (control SF) or a different (swap SF) orientation. Electrophysiological evidence showed that the responses of single neurons during this exposure were sensitive to the change in orientation. Nevertheless, the tolerance of orientation selectivity for changes in SF was unaffected by the temporal contiguity manipulation, as observed in 239 single neurons isolated pre-exposure and 234 post-exposure. Temporal contiguity learning did not affect orientation selectivity in V1. The basic filter mechanisms that characterize V1 processing seem unaffected by temporal contiguity manipulations.
Highlights
The mammalian visual system is organized hierarchically. Hubel and Wiesel (1959) initially described the properties in the first stage of this cortical system, the primary visual cortex (V1), with neurons responding to a specific orientation and/or direction
A second emerging property of V1 is the tuning of neurons to an optimal spatial frequency (SF) (Girman et al, 1999) which is largely independent from orientation preference (Webster and De Valois, 1985; Mazer et al, 2002)
We studied the effect of temporal contiguity learning in the primary visual cortex of rats, challenging the tolerance of orientation selectivity for transformations in SF
Summary
The mammalian visual system is organized hierarchically. Hubel and Wiesel (1959) initially described the properties in the first stage of this cortical system, the primary visual cortex (V1), with neurons responding to a specific orientation and/or direction. Hubel and Wiesel (1959) initially described the properties in the first stage of this cortical system, the primary visual cortex (V1), with neurons responding to a specific orientation and/or direction. Since these first observations in cats, these coding principles have been described in many mammals, including rodents (Girman et al, 1999; Niell and Stryker, 2008; Glickfeld et al, 2013; Kaschube, 2014; Li et al, 2015; Scholl et al, 2017). The outcome and mechanisms might differ, plasticity of orientation tuning have been observed in adult mice (Yoshida et al, 2012) after
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