부산대학교 도서관

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.05.007 Byline: Luoxiu Huang (a), Tiande Shou (a)(b), Xin Chen (a), Hongbo Yu (a), Chao Sun (a), Zhiyin Liang (a) Keywords: Oblique effect; Orientation column; Extrastriate cortex; Visual cortex Abstract: Optical imaging based on intrinsic signals is a powerful tool for in vivo studying functional organization of various cortices. Here, the functional architecture of orientation-sensitive neurons in higher order extrastriate cortical area 21a was investigated in cats using optical imaging combined with electrophysiological methods. It is found that neurons in area 21 with similar preferred orientations were functionally organized into a slab-like columnar structure orthogonal to the cortical surface, and the orientation columns were distributed more densely than those in area 17. The responsiveness and activated areas of optical maps visually elicited by the horizontal and vertical gratings were always larger than those by oblique gratings in areas 21a and 17. This neural oblique effect shown in orientation maps was more significant in area 21a than that in area 17. The findings suggest a neuronal mechanism in the higher order extrastriate cortex involving the visual perceptive process of the superiority of cardinal contours. Author Affiliation: (a) Vision Research Lab, Center for Brain Science Research, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China (b) State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China Article History: Received 2 December 2005; Revised 30 April 2006; Accepted 3 May 2006