Topographic organization of the “third tier” dorsomedial visual cortex in the macaque

Abstract

AbstractThe boundaries of the visual areas located anterior to V2 in the dorsomedial region of the macaque cortex remain contentious. This region is usually conceptualized as including two functional subdivisions: the dorsal component of area V3 (V3d), laterally, and another area, named the parietooccipital area (PO) or V6, medially. However, the nature of the putative border between V3d and PO/V6 has remained undefined. We recorded the receptive fields of multiunit clusters in adult male macaques, and reconstructed the locations of recording sites using histological sections and “unfolded” cortical maps. Immediately adjacent to dorsomedial V2 we observed a representation of the lower contralateral quadrant, which represented the vertical meridian at its rostral border. This region, corresponding to V3d of previous studies, formed a simple eccentricity gradient, from approximately <5° in the annectant gyrus, to >60° in the parietooccipital sulcus. However, there was no topographic reversal where one would expect to find the border between V3d and PO/V6. Rather, near the midline, this lower quadrant map continued directly into a representation of the peripheral upper visual field, without an intervening lower quadrant representation that could be unambiguously assigned to PO/V6. Thus, V3d and PO/V6 form a continuous topographic map, which includes parts of both quadrants. Together with previous observations that V3d and PO/V6 are both densely myelinated relative to adjacent cortex, and share similar input from V1, these results suggest that they are parts of a single area, which is distinct from the one forming the ventral component of the third tier complex.Significance statementThe primate visual cortex has a large number of areas. Knowing the extent of each visual area, and how they can be distinguished from each other, are essential for the interpretation of experiments aimed at understanding visual processing. Currently, there are conflicting models of the organization of the dorsomedial visual cortex rostral to area V2 (one of the earliest stages of cortical processing of vision). By conducting large-scale electrophysiological recordings, we found that what were originally thought to be distinct areas in this region (dorsal V3, and the parietooccipital area [PO/V6]), together form a single map the visual field. These results will help guide future functional studies, and the interpretation of the outcomes of lesions involving the dorsal visual cortex.