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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 15, 2009, 29(15):5009-5021; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0219-09.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Adaptable Mechanisms That Regulate the Contrast Response of Neurons in the Primate Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

Aaron J. Camp,¹ Chris Tailby,^1,2 and Samuel G. Solomon¹

¹Discipline of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences and Bosch Institute, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia, and ²National Vision Research Institute, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Samuel G. Solomon, Anderson Stuart Building, F13, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. Email: samuels{at}physiol.usyd.edu.au

The response of the classical receptive field of visual neurons can be suppressed by stimuli that, when presented alone, cause no change in the discharge rate. This suppression reveals the presence of an extraclassical receptive field (ECRF). In recordings from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of a New World primate, the marmoset, we characterize the mechanisms that contribute to the ECRF by measuring their spatiotemporal tuning during prolonged exposure to a high-contrast grating (contrast adaptation). The ECRF was strongest in magnocellular cells, where contrast adaptation reduced suppression from the ECRF: adaptation of the ECRF transferred across spatial frequency, temporal frequency, and orientation, but not across space. This implies that the ECRF of LGN cells comprises multiple adaptable mechanisms, each broadly tuned but spatially localized, and consistent with a retinal origin. Signals from the ECRF saturated at high contrasts, and so adaptation of one part of the ECRF brought into its operating range signals from other parts of the visual field. Although the ECRF is adaptable, its major impact during contrast adaptation to a spatially extended pattern was to reduce visual response and hence reduce a neuron's susceptibility to contrast adaptation; in normal viewing, a major role of the ECRF might be to protect visual sensitivity in scenes dominated by high contrast.

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Received Jan. 15, 2009; revised March 8, 2009; accepted March 12, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Samuel G. Solomon, Anderson Stuart Building, F13, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. Email: samuels{at}physiol.usyd.edu.au

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