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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 6, 2003, 23(18):7117-7128
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Disparity-Based Coding of Three-Dimensional Surface Orientation by Macaque Middle Temporal Neurons
Jerry D. Nguyenkim and
Gregory C. DeAngelis
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of
Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Gradients of binocular disparity across the visual field provide a potent
cue to the three-dimensional (3-D) orientation of surfaces in a scene. Neurons
selective for 3-D surface orientation defined by disparity gradients have
recently been described in parietal cortex, but little is known about where
and how this selectivity arises within the visual pathways. Because the middle
temporal area (MT) has previously been implicated in depth perception, we
tested whether MT neurons could signal the 3-D orientation (as parameterized
by tilt and slant) of planar surfaces that were depicted by random-dot
stereograms containing a linear gradient of horizontal disparities. We find
that many MT neurons are tuned for 3-D surface orientation, and that tilt and
slant generally have independent effects on MT responses. This separable
coding of tilt and slant is reminiscent of the joint coding of variables in
other areas (e.g., orientation and spatial frequency in V1). We show that tilt
tuning remains unchanged when all coherent motion is removed from the visual
stimuli, indicating that tilt selectivity is not a byproduct of 3-D velocity
coding. Moreover, tilt tuning is typically insensitive to changes in the mean
disparity (depth) of gradient stimuli, indicating that tilt tuning cannot be
explained by conventional tuning for frontoparallel disparities. Finally, we
explore the receptive field mechanisms underlying selectivity for 3-D surface
orientation, and we show that tilt tuning arises through heterogeneous
disparity tuning within the receptive fields of MT neurons. Our findings show
that MT neurons carry high-level signals about 3-D surface structure, in
addition to coding retinal image velocities.
Key words: visual cortex; extrastriate; stereopsis; binocular disparity; surface; tilt; slant
Received Mar. 19, 2003;
revised Jun. 4, 2003;
accepted Jun. 5, 2003.
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