A Hierarchical, Retinotopic Proto-organization of the Primate Visual System at Birth

Overview

Journal Elife

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Jul 4

PMID 28671063

Citations 83

Authors

Michael J Arcaro

Margaret S Livingstone

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The adult primate visual system comprises a series of hierarchically organized areas. Each cortical area contains a topographic map of visual space, with different areas extracting different kinds of information from the retinal input. Here we asked to what extent the newborn visual system resembles the adult organization. We find that hierarchical, topographic organization is present at birth and therefore constitutes a proto-organization for the entire primate visual system. Even within inferior temporal cortex, this proto-organization was already present, prior to the emergence of category selectivity (e.g., faces or scenes). We propose that this topographic organization provides the scaffolding for the subsequent development of visual cortex that commences at the onset of visual experience.

Citing Articles

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Face cells encode object parts more than facial configuration of illusory faces.

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