TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schmidt, Kerstin E.
A1  - Lomber, Stephen G.
A1  - Innocenti, Giorgio M.
T1  - Specificity of neuronal responses in the primary visual cortex is modulated by interhemispheric cortico-cortical input
T2  - Cerebral Cortex
N2  - Within the visual cortex, it has been proposed that interhemispheric interactions serve to re-establish the continuity of the visual field across its vertical meridian (VM) by mechanisms similar to those used by intrinsic connections within a hemisphere. However, other specific functions of transcallosal projections have also been proposed, including contributing to disparity tuning and depth perception. Here, we consider whether interhemispheric connections modulate specific response properties, orientation and direction selectivity, of neurons in areas 17 and 18 of the ferret by combining reversible thermal deactivation in one hemisphere with optical imaging of intrinsic signals and single-cell electrophysiology in the other hemisphere. We found interhemispheric influences on both the strength and specificity of the responses to stimulus orientation and direction of motion, predominantly at the VM. However, neurons and domains preferring cardinal contours, in particular vertical contours, seem to receive stronger interhemispheric input than others. This finding is compatible with interhemispheric connections being involved in horizontal disparity tuning. In conclusion, our results support the view that interhemispheric interactions mainly perform integrative functions similar to those of connections intrinsic to one hemisphere. Key words: cooling deactivation , corpus callosum , ferret , optical imaging , orientation selectivity
KW  - cooling deactivation
KW  - corpus callosum
KW  - ferret
KW  - optical imaging
KW  - orientation selectivity
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/20259
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-85181
N1  - © The Authors 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 20
IS  - 12
SP  - 2776
EP  - 2786
ER  -