Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 76, Issue 2, 16 August 1974, Pages 247-265
Brain Research

The organization of the second visual area (V II) in the owl monkey: A second order transformation of the visual hemifield

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(74)90458-2Get rights and content

Summary

The visuotopic organization of the second visual area (V II) in the owl monkey was mapped by determining the receptive field positions for single neurons and small clusters of neurons recorded with microelectrodes. Our data indicate that V II is a long narrow strip of cortex which appears to correspond to area 18 of Brodmann8. The results also indicate that the topological transformation of the visual field in V II is fundamentally different from that in the primary visual area (V I). In V I, adjacent loci in the contralateral half of the visual field are always represented in adjacent cortical loci, and thus V I is a simple topological representation which we refer to as afirst order transformation of the visual hemifield. In contrast, adjacent loci in the contralateral hemifield arenot always represented in adjacent loci in V II. Beyond the central 7° in V II, the representation of the horizontal meridiansplits to form most of the anterior border of V II, and the upper and lower quadrants of the visual field are represented separately. Thus, two adjoining parts of the visual field on each side of the horizontal meridian can be represented in quite separate parts of V II. We refer to V II as asecond order transformation of the visual hemifield and suggest that V II serves as a functional adjunct to V I.

References (35)

  • AllmanJ.M. et al.

    A crescent-shaped cortical visual area surrounding the middle temporal area (MT) in the owl monkey (Aotus trivirgatus)

    Anat. Rec.

    (1973)
  • AllmanJ.M. et al.

    A dorsomedial visual area adjoining V II in the owl monkey (Aotus trivirgatus)

    Soc. Neurosci. Abstr.

    (1971)
  • BilgeM. et al.

    A map of the visual cortex in the cat

    J. Physiol. (Lond.)

    (1967)
  • BrodmannK.

    Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde

  • CampbellA.W.

    Histological Studies on the Localization of Cerebral Function

  • CoweyA.

    Projection of the retina on to striate and prestriate cortex in the squirre

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1964)
  • GareyL.J. et al.

    Interrelationships of striate and extrastriate cortex with the primary relay sites of the visual pathway

    J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat.

    (1968)
  • Cited by (184)

    • Evolution of Visual Cortex in Primates

      2020, Evolutionary Neuroscience
    • Parcellating Cerebral Cortex: How Invasive Animal Studies Inform Noninvasive Mapmaking in Humans

      2018, Neuron
      Citation Excerpt :

      T) In retinotopic organization, V2 shares a representation of the vertical meridian with V1 (inferior meridian dorsally and superior meridian ventrally). Progressing across the V1/V2 border, neuronal receptive fields reverse in sign (toward the vertical meridian, and then away from it) (Sereno et al., 1994, 1995); such sign reversals are useful indicators for other visual area boundaries, including the anterior border of V2, which has a split representation of the horizontal meridian (Cragg, 1969; Zeki, 1969; Allman and Kaas, 1974). ( F) Receptive fields in V2 are on average two-fold larger than V1 in linear dimensions (Gattass et al., 1981), consistent with the modest convergence in the anatomical projection from V1 to V2 (Van Essen et al., 1986).

    • Evolution of Visual Cortex in Primates

      2016, Evolution of Nervous Systems: Second Edition
    • The case for primate V3

      2012, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    *

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. 37240, U.S.A.

    View full text