RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A sinusoidal transform of the visual field in cortical area V2
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.12.08.416651
DO 10.1101/2020.12.08.416651
A1 Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani
A1 Kuo-Sheng Lee
A1 Rachel Satterfield
A1 Nicole Shultz
A1 David Fitzpatrick
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/05/2020.12.08.416651.abstract
AB The retinotopic maps of many visual cortical areas are thought to follow the fundamental principles that have been described for primary visual cortex (V1) where nearby points on the retina map to nearby points on the surface of V1, and orthogonal axes of the retinal surface are represented along orthogonal axes of the cortical surface. Here we demonstrate a striking departure from this conventional mapping in the secondary visual area (V2) of the tree shrew. Although local retinotopy is preserved, orthogonal axes of the retina are represented along the same axis of the cortical surface, an unexpected geometry explained by an orderly sinusoidal transform of the retinal surface. This sinusoidal topography is ideally suited for achieving uniform coverage in an elongated area like V2, is predicted by mathematical models designed to achieve wiring minimization, and provides a novel explanation for stripe-like patterns of intra-cortical connections and stimulus response properties in V2. Our findings suggest that cortical circuits flexibly implement solutions to sensory surface representation, with dramatic consequences for the large-scale layout of topographic maps.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.