Feedforward contributions to sensory response properties in the early visual system

The unique ecological utility provided by the complex sensory processing that occurs in the brains of visual animals cannot be over appreciated. Psychologists, physiologists, mathematicians, and philosophers, among others, have subjected vision in humans and non-human animals to intense scrutiny. Perhaps the most studied regions of the mammalian visual system are the early visual pathways: the retina, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus (LGN), and area 17 of the primary visual cortex (V1). This dissertation was conceived and conducted to elucidate some of the contributions of feedforward processes to sensory responses in the early visual system. Extracellular recordings were collected from individual neurons in the retina, visual thalamus, and primary visual cortex of cats, and the primary visual cortex of ferrets while controlling the sensory input to the system. These methods were used to characterize five distinct features of information processing: (1) the influence of stimulus temporal frequency on orientation tuning in V1 neurons, (2) the influence of stimulus temporal frequency on direction selectivity in V1 neurons, (3) the response properties of LGN neurons in the absence of On-center retinal input, (4) the orientation tuning in V1 neurons in the absence of On-center LGN input, and (5) the direction selectivity of V1 neurons in the absence of On-center LGN input. The results presented in the following chapters show that the paradigmatic feedforward model of processing in the early visual system and its contribution to neuronal response properties requires further refinement. The work presented in chapter 2 show that the direction selectivity---but not orientation tuning---of ferret V1 neurons is dependant on the temporal frequency of stimuli, suggesting that stability of orientation tuning is an important aspect of early visual processing. The work presented in chapter 3 suggest there is more frequent divergence of connections in the retinogeniculate pathway of the cat than previously recognized and that functionally silent, non-specific retinal inputs can undergo rapid plasticity when the On pathway is disrupted. The work presented in chapter 4 investigates the response properties of V1 neurons in the absence of On-center LGN activity. The results show that while orientation tuning is resilient to the reduction in feedforward input, direction selectivity behaves more erratically. The early visual system is the computational foundation upon which more complex features are detected in the visual environment. In order to understand how visual processing in later visual pathways is accomplished, it is critical that the feedforward contributions to response properties in the early visual pathways be understood.