The spatial organization of interareal connections in mammalian visual cortex

CCNY Data Science, Networks, and Biology Seminar

Time and place

3:30 PM on Wednesday, November 30th, 2016; NAC 7/219

Jonathan Levitt (CCNY Biology)

Abstract

​The mammalian cerebral cortex contains a number of distinct areas that mediate visual perception. There are several dozen distinct visual areas in primates, over half of the entire cortical mantle. Neurons in each of these regions are arranged topographically; neighboring neurons respond to visual stimuli that fall on adjacent regions of the retina (i.e. different regions of visual space). However, the precise map of visual space differs in each of these areas. These visual cortical areas in the adult mammalian brain are linked by a network of interareal feedforward and feedback circuits that are broadly topographic – source and target neurons sit in largely corresponding regions of the visual field map. A major interest of my laboratory is to characterize the organization of these anatomical circuits linking different areas. I will describe studies on the topographic precision and general organization of these circuits in the adult brain, and how they refine from an immature state postnatally.