Neuron
Volume 95, Issue 4, 16 August 2017, Pages 971-981.e5
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Article
Functional Subpopulations of Neurons in a Macaque Face Patch Revealed by Single-Unit fMRI Mapping

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.07.014Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • We compared responses of macaque face patch cells to fMRI activity across the brain

  • Single neurons yielded diverse fMRI correlation maps in response to natural videos

  • Maps generated by single units within <1 mm3 in the AF face patch differed greatly

  • Clustering neurons based on such maps revealed functional subpopulations within AF

Summary

Neurons within fMRI-defined face patches of the macaque brain exhibit shared categorical responses to flashed images but diverge in their responses under more natural viewing conditions. Here we investigate functional diversity among neurons in the anterior fundus (AF) face patch, combining whole-brain fMRI with longitudinal single-unit recordings in a local population (<1 mm3). For each cell, we computed a whole-brain correlation map based on its shared time course with voxels throughout the brain during naturalistic movie viewing. Based on this mapping, neighboring neurons showed markedly different affiliation with distant visually responsive areas and fell coarsely into subpopulations. Of these, only one subpopulation (∼16% of neurons) yielded similar correlation maps to the local fMRI signal. The results employ the readout of large-scale fMRI networks and, by indicating multiple functional domains within a single voxel, present a new view of functional diversity within a local neural population.

Keywords

face patches
social perception
vision
neurophysiology
natural vision
brain networks
inferotemporal cortex
biological motion
free-viewing
monkey

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