Elsevier

Vision Research

Volume 51, Issue 7, 13 April 2011, Pages 718-737
Vision Research

Review
Imaging retinotopic maps in the human brain

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2010.08.004Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

A quarter-century ago visual neuroscientists had little information about the number and organization of retinotopic maps in human visual cortex. The advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a non-invasive, spatially-resolved technique for measuring brain activity, provided a wealth of data about human retinotopic maps. Just as there are differences amongst non-human primate maps, the human maps have their own unique properties. Many human maps can be measured reliably in individual subjects during experimental sessions lasting less than an hour. The efficiency of the measurements and the relatively large amplitude of functional MRI signals in visual cortex make it possible to develop quantitative models of functional responses within specific maps in individual subjects. During this last quarter-century, there has also been significant progress in measuring properties of the human brain at a range of length and time scales, including white matter pathways, macroscopic properties of gray and white matter, and cellular and molecular tissue properties. We hope the next 25 years will see a great deal of work that aims to integrate these data by modeling the network of visual signals. We do not know what such theories will look like, but the characterization of human retinotopic maps from the last 25 years is likely to be an important part of future ideas about visual computations.

Research highlights

► Advances in neuroimaging over the last 25 years have dramatically transformed understanding of visual representations and enabled the discovery and routine identification of many visual field maps in human visual cortex. ► Measurements of maps and functional specialization (e.g., color, form, motion) are increasingly measured in the same subjects clarifying how the neurons in various maps contribute to visual perception. ► Retinotopic mapping methods are being extended to sub-cortical structures and coordinated with complementary neuroimaging methods, including diffusion imaging, spectral imaging, and receptor imaging.

Keywords

Visual field maps
Retinotopy
Human visual cortex
Functional specialization
Optic radiation
Visual field map clusters

Cited by (0)