RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Stream-Specific Feedback Inputs to the Primate Primary Visual Cortex
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.03.04.977264
DO 10.1101/2020.03.04.977264
A1 Frederick Federer
A1 Seminare Ta’afua
A1 Sam Merlin
A1 Mahlega S. Hassanpour
A1 Alessandra Angelucci
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/09/2020.03.04.977264.abstract
AB The sensory neocortex consists of hierarchically-organized areas reciprocally connected via feedforward and feedback circuits. Feedforward connections shape the receptive field properties of neurons in higher areas within parallel streams specialized in processing specific stimulus attributes. Feedback connections, instead, have been implicated in top-down modulations, such as attention, prediction and sensory context. However, their computational role remains unknown, partly because we lack knowledge about rules of feedback connectivity to constrain models of feedback function. For example, it is unknown whether feedback connections maintain stream-specific segregation, or integrate information across parallel streams. Using selective viral-mediated labeling of feedback connections arising from specific cytochrome-oxidase stripes of macaque visual area V2, we find that feedback to the primary visual cortex (V1) is organized into parallel streams resembling the reciprocal feedforward pathways. These results suggest that functionally-specialized V2 feedback channels modulate V1 responses to specific stimulus attributes, an organizational principle that could extend to feedback pathways in other sensory systems.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.