Article Abstract:
Cells of the lateral geniculate nucleus, with overlapping receptive fields of the on-centre or off-centre type fire spikes that are precisely correlated and are synchronized to within 1 millisecond. These geniculate neurons are also directed to a common cortical target neuron where synchronous spikes are more effective in eliciting a postsynaptic response. Precisely correlated firing may strengthen the thalamic input to cortical simple cells and the transmission of information from thalamus to cortex.
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Article Abstract:
Research involving monkeys showed that the anterior inferotemporal cortex (IT), the part of the brain that is the last stage in the processing of visual information, is made up of columns. Each column houses cells whose shape enables them to recognize similarly shaped objects. Although other portions of the visual cortex had been shown to be columnar in organization, this is the first evidence that this is also the IT's structure.
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Article Abstract:
The physiological processing of visual information in the color/form pathway requires input from both the P and M retinal ganglion cells of the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus. This finding contradicts the hypothesis of a simple, close relationship between the subcortical and cortical pathways, with the M channel inputting the motion pathway and the P channel actuating the color/form pathway.
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