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Cited by 86Visual perception and processing mechanismsMotor Control and AdaptationMultisensory perception and integration

Single neurons with both form/color differential responses and saccade-related responses in the nonretinotopic pulvinar of the behaving macaque monkey

Benevento, Louis A., Port, John D.·1995·Visual Neuroscience
DOI 10.1017/s0952523800008439
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Abstract

The nonretinotopic portion of the macaque pulvinar complex is interconnected with the occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal transcortical visual systems where information about the location and motion of a visual object or its form and color are modulated by eye movements and attention. We recorded from single cells in and about the border of the dorsal portion of the lateral pulvinar and the adjacent medial pulvinar of awake behaving Macaca mulatta in order to determine how the properties of these two functionally dichotomous cortical systems were represented. We found a class of pulvinar neurons that responded differentially to ten different patterns or broadband wavelengths (colors). Thirty-four percent of cells tested responded to the presentation of at least one of the pattern or color stimuli. These cells often discharged to several of the patterns or colors, but responded best to only one or two of them, and 86% were found to have statistically significant pattern and/or color preferences. Pattern/color preferential cells had an average latency of 79.1 ± 46.0 ms (range 31–186 ms), responding well before most inferotemporal cortical cell responses. Visually guided and memory-guided saccade tasks showed that 58% of pattern/color preferential cells also had saccade-related properties e.g. directional presaccadic and postsaccadic discharges, and inhibition of activity during the saccade. In the pulvinar, the mean presaccadic response latency was earlier, and the mean postsaccadic response latency was later, than those reported for parietal cortex. We also discovered that the strength of response to patterns or colors changed depending upon the behavioral setting. In comparison to trials in which the monkey fixated dead ahead during passive presentations of pattern and color stimuli, 92% of the cells showed attenuated responses to the same passive presentation of patterns and colors during fixation when these trials were interleaved with trials which also required active saccades to pattern and color targets in the periphery. We conclude that properties which represent the functionally dichotomous object and spatial visual systems are found together in single pulvinar neurons and that the responses of these cells to pattern or color stimuli are influenced by the focus of spatial attention. The pulvinar is the first structure in the brain shown to have neurons which integrate both object and spatial properties and the response latencies indicate that this information is processed before that in cortex. These results are discussed in terms of role of the pulvinar in visual attention as well as its unique role in providing both object feature and spatial location information to the inferotemporal cortex.

Integrity signals

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Crossref · 10.1017/s0952523800008439

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  • Neurons in the pulvinar respond more strongly to behaviourally relevant stimuli than to unattended stimuli.

    “Neurons in the pulvinar exhibit features of selective attention; as they respond more strongly to behaviourally relevant stimuli than to unattended stimuli [48], as such, they contribute to top-down suppression of distractors [49].”

    From Cerebral hierarchies: predictive processing, precision and the pulvinar (2015) · cites this paper as [48]

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Authors
Benevento, L. A., & Port, J. D.
Affiliations
University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
ORCID
Port, John D.
Venue
Visual Neuroscience
Publisher
Maximum Academic Press
Published
1995-05
Volume
12
Issue
3
Pages
523-544
ISSN
  • 0952-5238 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8714
DOI
10.1017/s0952523800008439
OpenAlex
W2105665089
Cited by
86
References
77
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 2
FWCI
1.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 5146 d)
Locations
  • Visual Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
Keywords
pulvinar, medial pulvinar, visual attention, response latency, visual object recognition, macaque, single-unit recording, visual cortex connectivity, memory-guided saccades, visual working memory
MeSH terms
Animals, Behavior, Animal, Color Perception, Electrophysiology, Form Perception, Macaca mulatta, Male, Microelectrodes, Neurons, Parietal Lobe, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Saccades, Temporal Lobe, Thalamus

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