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Visual Response Properties of Neurons in the Parahippocampal Cortex of Monkeys

¹ Graduate School of Biosphere Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan; ² Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Aichi 484-8506, Japan; ³ Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Kawaguchi 332-0012, Japan

Submitted 5 December 2002; accepted in final form 23 April 2003

We examined visual response properties of single neurons in the parahippocampal (PH) cortex of alert monkeys using various visual stimuli (bars, geometrical shapes such as a circle, and images such as a human face) while the monkey fixated a spot for a juice reward. Of the investigated PH neurons 104 of 359 (29%) were found to be visually responsive. The investigation was focused on spatial and object aspects of visual processing. We investigated a visual receptive field (RF) property and a direction selectivity for a moving bar with respect to spatial processing. For half of these PH neurons (53%), the optimal stimulus position, where a visual stimulus elicited the maximal response, located peripherally, that is, with an eccentricity of more than 10 deg. More than 20% of these PH neurons had an RF that does not include the center of gaze. There were neurons in the PH cortex that appeared to convey motion signals. In addition, some PH neurons showed eye-position–dependent activity. With respect to object processing, we investigated selectivities for images, geographical shapes, orientations of a bar, and colors. For comparison purposes, we also examined responses of perirhinal (PR) neurons. PH neurons showed selective responses to these stimuli, but PR neurons were found to be more selective for images than PH neurons. These results suggest that the PH cortex is involved in both spatial and object processing, but less involved than the PR cortex in processing of complex images.

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