Functionally distinct inhibitory neurons at the first stage of visual cortical processing
- 16 November 2003
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Neuroscience
- Vol. 6 (12), 1300-1308
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1152
Abstract
Here we explore inhibitory circuits at the thalamocortical stage of processing in layer 4 of the cat's visual cortex, focusing on the anatomy and physiology of the interneurons themselves. Our immediate aim was to explore the inhibitory mechanisms that contribute to orientation selectivity, perhaps the most dramatic response property to emerge across the thalamocortical synapse. The broader goal was to understand how inhibitory circuits operate. Using whole-cell recording in cats in vivo, we found that layer 4 contains two populations of inhibitory cells defined by receptive field class—simple and complex. The simple cells were selective for stimulus orientation, whereas the complex cells were not. Our observations help to explain how neurons become sensitive to stimulus orientation and maintain that selectivity as stimulus contrast changes. Overall, the work suggests that different sources of inhibition, either selective for specific features or broadly tuned, interact to provide appropriate representations of elements within the environment.Keywords
This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- Electrophysiological Classes of Cat Primary Visual Cortical Neurons In Vivo as Revealed by Quantitative AnalysesJournal of Neurophysiology, 2003
- Receptive Fields and Response Properties of Neurons in Layer 4 of Ferret Visual CortexJournal of Neurophysiology, 2003
- Receptive-field construction in cortical inhibitory interneuronsNature Neuroscience, 2002
- Synaptic physiology of the flow of information in the cat's visual cortex in vivoThe Journal of Physiology, 2002
- Opponent Inhibition: A Developmental Model of Layer 4 of the Neocortical CircuitNeuron, 2002
- LOCAL CIRCUITS IN PRIMARY VISUAL CORTEX OF THE MACAQUE MONKEYAnnual Review of Neuroscience, 1998
- Excitation and inhibition in orientation selectivity of cat visual cortex neurons revealed by whole-cell recordings in vivoVisual Neuroscience, 1993
- Orientation selectivity in the cat's striate cortex is invariant with stimulus contrastExperimental Brain Research, 1982
- Anatomical organization of the primary visual cortex (area 17) of the cat. A comparison with area 17 of the macaque monkeyJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1979
- Receptive field classes of cells in the striate cortex of the catBrain Research, 1977