Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1991 Sep 1;88(17):7572–7575. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.17.7572

Stimulus selectivity and state dependence of activity in inferior temporal cortex of infant monkeys.

H R Rodman 1, J P Skelly 1, C G Gross 1
PMCID: PMC52343  PMID: 1881897

Abstract

Inferior temporal cortex is necessary for visual object recognition in adult primates but is less critical in infants. Nonetheless, in macaques as young as 6 weeks old, inferior temporal neurons showed adult-like visual response properties, including form selectivity and bilateral receptive fields, indicating that extended maturation and visual experience may not be necessary for adult-like encoding of complex objects. However, before the animals were 4 months old, visual responsiveness was found in inferior temporal cortex only in awake monkeys performing a behavioral task and not in anesthetized ones, suggesting that extraretinal factors profoundly influence function in "association" cortex in developing as well as mature animals.

Full text

PDF

Images in this article

7573Image
on p.7573
7573Image
on p.7573

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Albright T. D. Direction and orientation selectivity of neurons in visual area MT of the macaque. J Neurophysiol. 1984 Dec;52(6):1106–1130. doi: 10.1152/jn.1984.52.6.1106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bachevalier J., Mishkin M. An early and a late developing system for learning and retention in infant monkeys. Behav Neurosci. 1984 Oct;98(5):770–778. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.98.5.770. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Desimone R., Albright T. D., Gross C. G., Bruce C. Stimulus-selective properties of inferior temporal neurons in the macaque. J Neurosci. 1984 Aug;4(8):2051–2062. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.04-08-02051.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Desimone R., Gross C. G. Visual areas in the temporal cortex of the macaque. Brain Res. 1979 Dec 14;178(2-3):363–380. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(79)90699-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Fuster J. M. Inferotemporal units in selective visual attention and short-term memory. J Neurophysiol. 1990 Sep;64(3):681–697. doi: 10.1152/jn.1990.64.3.681. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Judge S. J., Richmond B. J., Chu F. C. Implantation of magnetic search coils for measurement of eye position: an improved method. Vision Res. 1980;20(6):535–538. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(80)90128-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Moran J., Desimone R. Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex. Science. 1985 Aug 23;229(4715):782–784. doi: 10.1126/science.4023713. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. ROBINSON D. A. A METHOD OF MEASURING EYE MOVEMENT USING A SCLERAL SEARCH COIL IN A MAGNETIC FIELD. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 1963 Oct;10:137–145. doi: 10.1109/tbmel.1963.4322822. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Raisler R. L., Harlow H. F. Learned behavior following lesions of posterior association cortex in infant, immature, and preadolescent monkeys. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1965 Oct;60(2):167–174. doi: 10.1037/h0022294. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Richmond B. J., Wurtz R. H., Sato T. Visual responses of inferior temporal neurons in awake rhesus monkey. J Neurophysiol. 1983 Dec;50(6):1415–1432. doi: 10.1152/jn.1983.50.6.1415. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rodman H. R., Albright T. D. Coding of visual stimulus velocity in area MT of the macaque. Vision Res. 1987;27(12):2035–2048. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(87)90118-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rodman H. R. Methods for repeated recording in visual cortex of anesthetized and awake behaving infant monkeys. J Neurosci Methods. 1991 Jul;38(2-3):209–222. doi: 10.1016/0165-0270(91)90171-u. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Schwartz E. L., Desimone R., Albright T. D., Gross C. G. Shape recognition and inferior temporal neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Sep;80(18):5776–5778. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.18.5776. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Webster M. J., Ungerleider L. G., Bachevalier J. Connections of inferior temporal areas TE and TEO with medial temporal-lobe structures in infant and adult monkeys. J Neurosci. 1991 Apr;11(4):1095–1116. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.11-04-01095.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wiesel T. N. Postnatal development of the visual cortex and the influence of environment. Nature. 1982 Oct 14;299(5884):583–591. doi: 10.1038/299583a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES