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Dynamic properties of neurons in cortical area MT in alert and anaesthetized macaque monkeys

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Abstract

In order to see the world with high spatial acuity, an animal must sample the visual image with many detectors that restrict their analyses to extremely small regions of space. The visual cortex must then integrate the information from these localized receptive fields to obtain a more global picture of the surrounding environment. We studied this process in single neurons within the middle temporal visual area (MT) of macaques using stimuli that produced conflicting local and global information about stimulus motion. Neuronal responses in alert animals initially reflected predominantly the ambiguous local motion features, but gradually converged to an unambiguous global representation. When the same animals were anaesthetized, the integration of local motion signals was markedly impaired even though neuronal responses remained vigorous and directional tuning characteristics were intact. Our results suggest that anaesthesia preferentially affects the visual processing responsible for integrating local signals into a global visual representation.

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Figure 1: Experimental stimuli.
Figure 2: Results for plaid stimuli.
Figure 3: Change in the pattern index over time.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Hendrickson for technical assistance, and M. Livingstone for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This work was supported by the NIH, The Whitehall Foundation and The Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation for Scientific Research. C.C.P. was supported by a McDonnell-Pew fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Christopher C. Pack, Vladimir K. Berezovskii & Richard T. Born

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  1. Christopher C. Pack
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  2. Vladimir K. Berezovskii
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  3. Richard T. Born
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Correspondence to Christopher C. Pack.

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Pack, C., Berezovskii, V. & Born, R. Dynamic properties of neurons in cortical area MT in alert and anaesthetized macaque monkeys. Nature 414, 905–908 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/414905a

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