Adaptation-induced sharpening of orientation tuning curves in the mouse visual cortex.

Objective: Orientation selectivity is an emergent property of visual neurons across species with columnar and noncolumnar organization of the visual cortex. The emergence of orientation selectivity is more established in columnar cortical areas than in noncolumnar ones. Thus, how does orientation selectivity emerge in noncolumnar cortical areas after an adaptation protocol? Adaptation refers to the constant presentation of a nonoptimal stimulus (adapter) to a neuron under observation for a specific time.

Adaptation-induced plasticity in the sensory cortex.

For medical and fundamental reasons, we need to understand adult brain plasticity at several levels: structural, physiological, and behavioral. Historically, brain plasticity has been mostly investigated by weakening or removing sensory inputs. The visual system has been extensively used because diminishing visual inputs, i.

Multisensory Integration: Is Medial Prefrontal Cortex Signaling Relevant for the Treatment of Higher-Order Visual Dysfunctions?

In the mammalian brain, information processing in sensory modalities and global mechanisms of multisensory integration facilitate perception. Emerging experimental evidence suggests that the contribution of multisensory integration to sensory perception is far more complex than previously expected. Here we revise how associative areas such as the prefrontal cortex, which receive and integrate inputs from diverse sensory modalities, can affect information processing in unisensory systems processes of down-stream signaling.

Effects of visual adaptation on orientation selectivity in cat secondary visual cortex.

Neuron orientation selectivity, otherwise known as the ability to respond optimally to a preferred orientation, has been extensively described in both primary and secondary visual cortices. This orientation selectivity, conserved through all cortical layers of a given column, is the primary basis for cortical organization and functional network emergence. While this selectivity is programmed and acquired since critical period, it has always been believed that in a mature brain, neurons' inherent functional features could not be changed.