Visual activation of neurons in inferotemporal cortex depends on striate cortex and forebrain commissures

Abstract

Neurons in inferotemporal cortex respond only to visual stimuli and a majority have receptive fields that extend well into both visual half-fields. After bilateral removal of striate cortex, no inferotemporal neurons responded to visual stimuli. After unilateral removal of striate cortex, inferotemporal neurons in both hemispheres responded only to stimuli in the hemifield contralateral to the intact striate cortex. After section of the corpus callosum and anterior commissure, inferotemporal neurons in both hemispheres responded only to stimuli in the hemifield contralateral to the recording site. These results indicate that inferotemporal cortex visual information from striate cortex and that the pathway from striate cortex to the contralateral inferotemporal cortex includes the forebrain commissures. This same striate-temporal pathway is also necessary for normal discrimination learning. We suggest that the converging input onto single inferotemporal neurons from widely separated retinal areas may provide a mechanism for stimulus equivalence over different parts of the visual field, and it may be the absence of such a mechanism that contributes to the visual discrimination deficit that follows inferotemporal lesions.