Summer Semester 2001
Graduate Course of the Zentrum fuer Neurowissenschaften Zuerich
Primary visual cortex: paths through the literature
Organizers: Matteo Carandini and Daniel Kiper
Teaching assistant: Severine Durand
Aim. The primary visual cortex is perhaps the best understood area of the whole cerebral cortex. The literature describing it is very large and spans more than four decades. With an aim to provide basic training for the graduate students in our own laboratories, we have designed a course that involves reading the original literature. Because of the size of this literature the choices we made were necessarily partial and incomplete. There are important topics that we have skipped entirely (see below for a list), and others that are over-emphasized. Still, the course covers a large number of original articles, and should provide a good basis for further readings on the primary visual cortex.
Format. Only the first lecture is given entirely by the organizers. The remaining lectures consist of a brief introduction followed by short (10, 20 or 30 min) presentations of original papers given by the students.
Requirements. There are no exams. Students who sign up for this course are expected to (1) be present at all lectures, not only the ones in which they are presenting a paper; (2) read all the papers, not only the ones they are scheduled to present; (3) participate in the discussions. This course is demanding in that the amount of reading required is substantial.
Credits. Participation in this course results in the award of 2 ZNZ credit points.
Schedule. Friday 14:00-16:00.
Location. Classes will be held in Irchel, Room 55 G 27 (the "glass room").
Syllabus:
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6 April |
Introduction. Geniculocortical anatomy. Neurophysiological techniques. Linear systems analysis. Kiper, D. and Carandini, M. (2001). Neural basis of pattern vision, Encyclopedia of cognitive science, . London: MacMillan. In press. Heeger, D. J. (2000). Lecture Notes on Signals, Linear Systems, and Convolution, (pp. 19): Stanford University. |
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20 April |
Hubel and Wiesel Hubel, D. and Wiesel, T. (1959). Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex. J. Physiol. (London), 148: 574-591. Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1962). Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. J. Physiol. (Lond.), 160: 106-154. Reid, R. C. and Alonso, J. M. (1995). Specificity of monosynaptic connections from thalamus to visual cortex. Nature, 378: 281-284. Alonso, J.-M. and Martinez, L. M. (1998). Functional connectivity between simple cells and complex cells in cat striate cortex. Nature Neurosci., 1: 395-403. Additional reading: Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1998). Early exploration of the visual cortex. Neuron, 20: 401-12. Tanaka, K. (1983). Cross-correlation analysis of geniculostriate neuronal relationships in cats. J. Neurophysiol. 49, 1303-1318. |
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27 April |
Linearity Movshon, J. A., Thompson, I. D. and Tolhurst, D. J. (1978). Spatial summation in the receptive fields of simple cells in the cat's striate cortex. Journal of Physiology (London), 283: 53-77. Movshon, J. A., Thompson, I. D. and Tolhurst, D. J. (1978). Receptive field organization of complex cells in the cat's striate cortex. J. Physiol. (London), 283: 79-99. Tolhurst, D. J., Walker, N. S., Thompson, I. D. & Dean, A. F. (1980) Nonlinearities of temporal summation in neurones in area 17 of the cat. Exp. Br. Res. 38, 431-435. Additional readings: Maffei, L. & Fiorentini, A. (1973) The visual cortex as a spatial frequency analyzer. Vis. Res. 13, 1255--1267. De Valois, K. K., De Valois, R. L. & Yund, E. W. (1979) Responses of striate cortex cells to grating and checkerboard patterns. J. Physiol. (London) 291, 483-505. Spitzer, H. and Hochstein, S. (1988). Complex-cell receptive field models. Progress in Neurobiology, 31: 285-309. |
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4 May |
No class! (ZNZ retreat). |
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11 May |
Inhibition Benevento, L. A., Creutzfeldt, O. and Kuhnt, U. (1972). Significance of intracortical inhibition in the visual cortex. Nature, 238: 124-126. Sillito, A. M., Kemp, J. A., Milson, J. A. and Berardi, N. (1980). A re-evaluation of the mechanisms underlying simple cell orientation selectivity. Brain Res., 194: 517-520. Ferster, D. (1986). Orientation selectivity of synaptic potentials in neurons of cat primary visual cortex. J. Neurosci., 6: 1284-1301. Crook, J. M. and Eysel, U. T. (1992). GABA-induced inactivation of functionally characterized sites in cat visual cortex (area 18): effects on orientation tuning. J. Neurosci., 12: 1816-1825. Nelson, S., Toth, L., Sheth, B. and Sur, M. (1994). Orientation selectivity of cortical neurons during intracellular blockade of inhibition. Science, 265: 774-777. Additional readings: Ferster, D. (1988). Spatially opponent excitation and inhibition in simple cells of the cat visual cortex. J. Neurosci., 8: 1172-1180. Anderson, J., Carandini, M. and Ferster, D. (2000). Orientation tuning of input conductance, excitation and inhibition in cat primary visual cortex. J Neurophysiol, 84: 909-931. |
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18 May |
Surrounds Blakemore, C. and Tobin, E. A. (1972). Lateral inhibition between orientation detectors in the cat's visual cortex. Exp Brain Res, 15: 439-440. Maffei, L. and Fiorentini, A. (1976). The unresponsive regions of visual cortical receptive fields. Vision Res., 13: 1255-1267. Bolz, J. and Gilbert, C. D. (1986). Generation of end-inhibition in the visual cortex via interlaminar connections. Nature, 320: 362-365. Levitt, J. B. and Lund, J. S. (1996). Contrast dependence of contextual effects in primate visual cortex. Nature, 387: 73-76. Sceniak, M. P., Ringach, D. L., Hawken, M. J. and Shapley, R. (1999). Contrast's effect on spatial summation by macaque V1 neurons. Nat Neurosci, 2(8): 733-9. Additional reading: Sillito, A. M., Grieve, K. L., Jones, H. E., Cudeiro, J. and Davis, J. (1995). Visual cortical mechanisms detecting focal orientation discontinuities. Nature, 378: 492-496. |
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25 May |
No class! (Holiday). |
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1 June |
Masking Morrone, M. C., Burr, D. C. and Maffei, L. (1982). Functional implications of cross-orientation inhibition of cortical visual cells. I. Neurophysiological evidence. Proc. R. Soc. Lon. B, 216: 335-354. Bonds, A. B. (1989). Role of inhibition in the specification of orientation selectivity of cells in the cat striate cortex. Vis. Neurosci., 2: 41-55. DeAngelis, G. C., Robson, J. G., Ohzawa, I. and Freeman, R. D. (1992). The organization of supression in receptive fields of neurons in cat visual cortex. J. Neurophysiol., 68: 144-163. Ringach, D. L., Hawken, M. J. and Shapley, R. (1997). Dynamics of orientation tuning in macaque primary visual cortex. Nature, 387: 281-284. |
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8 June |
No class! (Goettingen meeting). |
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15 June |
Adaptation Maffei, L., Fiorentini, A. and Bisti, S. (1973). Neural correlate of perceptual adaptation to gratings. Science, 182: 1036-1038. Movshon, J. A. and Lennie, P. (1979). Pattern-selective adaptation in visual cortical neurones. Nature, 278: 850-852. Ohzawa, I., Sclar, G. and Freeman, R. D. (1982). Contrast gain control in the cat visual cortex. Nature, 298: 266-268. Carandini, M. and Ferster, D. (1997). A tonic hyperpolarization underlying contrast adaptation in cat visual cortex. Science, 276: 949-952. Sanchez-Vives, M. V., Nowak, L. G. and McCormick, D. A. (2000). Membrane mechanisms underlying contrast adaptation in cat area 17 in vivo. J Neurosci, 20: 4267-4285. Additional reading: Albrecht, D. G., Farrar, S. B. & Hamilton, D. B. Spatial contrast adaptation characteristics of neurones recorded in the cat's visual cortex. J. Physiol. (London) 347, 713-739 (1984).Maffei, L., Berardi, N. and Bisti, S. (1986). Interocular transfer of adaptation after-effect in neurons of area 17 and 18 of split chiasm cats. J. Neurophysiol., 55: 966-976. |
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22 June |
Potential and spikes Sclar, G. and Freeman, R. D. (1982). Orientation selectivity in the cat's striate cortex is invariant with stimulus contrast. Exp. Brain Res., 46: 457-461. Heeger, D. J. (1992). Half-squaring in responses of cat simple cells. Vis. Neurosci., 9: 427-443. Carandini, M. and Ferster, D. (2000). Membrane potential and firing rate in cat primary visual cortex. J Neurosci, 20: 470-484. Anderson, J. S., Lampl, I., Gillespie, D. C. and Ferster, D. (2000). The contribution of noise to contrast invariance of orientation tuning in cat visual cortex. Science, 290: 1968-72. Additional reading: Lampl, I., Reichova, I. and Ferster, D. (1999). Synchronous membrane potential fluctuations in neurons of the cat visual cortex. Neuron, 22(2): 361-74. |
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29 June |
Gain control Albrecht, D. G. and Geisler, W. S. (1991). Motion sensitivity and the contrast-response function of simple cells in the visual cortex. Vis. Neurosci., 7: 531-546. Heeger, D. J. (1992). Normalization of cell responses in cat striate cortex. Vis. Neurosci., 9: 181-197. Carandini, M., Heeger, D. J. and Movshon, J. A. (1997). Linearity and normalization in simple cells of the macaque primary visual cortex. J. Neurosci., 17: 8621-8644. Abbott, L. F., Varela, J. A., Sen, K. and Nelson, S. B. (1997). Synaptic depression and cortical gain control. Science, 275: 220-224. Additional reading: Truchard, A. M., Ohzawa, I. and Freeman, R. D. (2000). Contrast gain control in the visual cortex: monocular versus binocular mechanisms. J Neurosci, 20(8): 3017-32. |
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6 July |
Direction selectivity Adelson, E. H. and Bergen, J. R. (1985). Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 2: 284-299. Reid, R. C., Soodak, R. E. and Shapley, R. M. (1987). Linear mechanisms of direction selectivity in simple cells of cat striate cortex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84: 8740-8744. Jagadeesh, B., Wheat, H. S. and Ferster, D. (1993). Linearity of summation of synaptic potentials underlying direction selectivity in simple cells of the cat visual cortex. Science, 262: 1901-1904. Heeger, D. J. (1993). Modeling simple cell direction selectivity with normalized, half-squared, linear operators. J. Neurophysiol., 70: 1885-1897. Additional reading: Tolhurst, D. J. and Dean, A. F. (1991). Evaluation of a linear model of directional selectivity in simple cells of the cat's striate cortex. Vis. Neurosci., 6: 421-428. |
Background. Here are a few books that are suggested for further reading or background reading.
Rodieck, R. W. (1998). The first steps in seeing. Sunderland, Massachussets: Sinauer.
Wandell, B., Foundations of Vision. 1995, Sunderland, Massachussets: Sinauer.
De Valois, R.L. and K. De Valois, Spatial Vision. 1988, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Topics left out for reasons of space (a non exhaustive list...):
Feedback, Development, Oscillations/synchronization, Color, Stereopsis, Anatomy such as horizontal and vertical connections and blobs and layers, Illusory contours, Membrane conductance, Learning/plasticity (other than adaptation), Signal/noise, Relationship between neuronal activity and perception, Neural codes, Optimality, sparseness, Dynamics, Attention, Figure/ground, fMRI measurements...
some of these topics will be covered in the follow-up course.