Color processing in macaque striate cortex: relationships to ocular dominance, cytochrome oxidase, and orientation

We located clusters of color-selective neurons in macaque striate cortex, as mapped with optical imaging and confirmed with electrophysiological recordings. By comparing responses to an equiluminant red/green stimulus versus a high-contrast luminance stimulus, we were able to reveal a patchy distribution of color selectivity. Other color imaging protocols, when compared with electrophysiological data, did not reliably indicate the location of functional structures. The imaged color patches were compared with other known functional subdivisions of striate cortex. There was a high degree of overlap of the color patches with the cytochrome-oxidase (CO) blobs. The patches were often larger than a single blob in size, however, and in some instances spanned two neighboring blobs. More than one-half (56%) of the color-selective patches seen in optical imaging were not confined to one ocular dominance (OD) column. Almost one-quarter of color patches (23%) extended across OD columns to encompass two blobs of different eye preference. We also compared optical images of orientation selectivity to maps of color selectivity. Results indicate that the layout of orientation and color selectivity are not directly related. Specifically, despite having similar scales and distributions, the maps of orientation and color selectivity were not in consistent alignment or registration. Further, we find that the maps of color selectivity and of orientation are each only loosely related to maps of OD. This description stands in contrast to a common depiction of color-selective regions as identical to CO blobs, appearing as pegs in the centers of OD columns in the classical "ice cube" model. These results concerning the pattern of color selectivity in V1 support the view (put forth in previous imaging studies of the organization of orientation and ocular dominance) that there is not a fundamental registration of functional hypercolumns in V1.