Abstract
How much of the functional organization of our visual system is inherited? Here we tested the heritability of retinotopic maps in human visual cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrate that retinotopic organization shows a closer correspondence in monozygotic (MZ) compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, suggesting a partial genetic determination. Using population receptive field (pRF) analysis to examine the preferred spatial location and selectivity of these neuronal populations, we further demonstrate that across cortical regions V1-V3, map architecture was more similar in MZ than DZ twins. The heritability of spatial selectivity, as quantified by pRF size, increased across the visual hierarchy. Our findings are consistent with heritability in both the arrangement of areal boundaries and stimulus tuning properties of visual cortex. This could constitute a neural substrate for variations in a range of perceptual effects, which themselves have been found to be at least partially genetically determined.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
How much of the functional organization of our visual system is inherited? Here we tested the heritability of retinotopic maps in human visual cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrate that retinotopic organization shows a closer correspondence in monozygotic (MZ) compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, suggesting a partial genetic determination. Using population receptive field (pRF) analysis to examine the preferred spatial location and selectivity of these neuronal populations, we further demonstrate that across cortical regions V1-V3, map architecture was more similar in MZ than DZ twins. The heritability of spatial selectivity, as quantified by pRF size, increased across the visual hierarchy. Our findings are consistent with heritability in both the arrangement of areal boundaries and stimulus tuning properties of visual cortex. This could constitute a neural substrate for variations in a range of perceptual effects, which themselves have been found to be at least partially genetically determined.