期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2005
卷号:102
期号:15
页码:5594-5599
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0501762102
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:The middle temporal area (MT) is a visual area in primates with direct and indirect inputs from the primary visual cortex (V1), a role in visual motion perception, and a suggested role in "blindsight." When V1 is deactivated, some studies report continued activation of MT neurons, which has been attributed to an indirect pathway to MT from the superior colliculus. Here we used muscimol to deactivate V1 while optically imaging visually evoked activity in MT in two primates, owl monkeys and galagos, where MT is exposed on the brain surface. The partial loss of V1 inputs abolished all or nearly all evoked activity in the retinotopically matched part of MT. Low levels of activation that persisted in portions of MT that were unstimulated or retinotopically congruent with the blocked portion of V1 appeared to reflect the spread of activity from stimulated to unstimulated parts of MT. Thus, a significant pathway based on the superior colliculus was not demonstrated.