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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 102/1/15    most recent 90624.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Kotake, Y. Articles by Tamura, H. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kotake, Y. Articles by Tamura, H.

Organization of Color-Selective Neurons in Macaque Visual Area V4

¹Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences and ²Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka; and ³Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan

Submitted 30 May 2008; accepted in final form 7 April 2009

Cortical area V4 in monkeys contains neurons that respond selectively to particular colors. It has been controversial how these color-selective neurons are spatially organized in V4. One view asserts that color-selective neurons are organized in columns with different colors orderly mapped across the cortex, whereas other studies have found no evidence for columnar organization or any other clustered structure. In the present study, we reexamined the functional organization of color-selective neurons in area V4 by quantitatively evaluating and comparing the color selectivity of nearby neurons as well as those encountered along electrode penetrations. Using a multiple single-unit recording technique, we recorded extracellular activities simultaneously from groups of nearby V4 neurons. Color discrimination and color preferences exhibited a moderate correlation between nearby neurons, consistent with neurons in a local region of V4 sharing similar responses to stimulus color. However, the degree of clustering was variable across recording sites. Some regions contained neurons with similar color preferences, whereas others contained neurons with diverse color preferences. Neurons in penetrations normal to the cortical surface responded to an overlapping range of colors and maintained a moderate correlation. Neurons in penetrations tangential to the cortical surface differed dramatically in their preferred color and exhibited a negative correlation. We conclude that neurons in area V4 are moderately clustered according to their color selectivity and that this weak clustering is columnar in structure.