Spatial elongation of population receptive field profiles revealed by model-free fMRI back-projection

Estimates of visual field topographies in human visual cortex obtained through fMRI traveling wave techniques usually provide the parameters of population receptive field (pRF) location (polar angle, eccentricity) and receptive field size. These parameters are obtained by fitting the recorded data to a standard model population receptive field. In this work, pRF profiles are measured directly by back-projecting preprocessed fMRI time-series to sweeps of a bar across the visual field in different angles. The current data suggest that the model-free pRF profiles contain information not only about receptive field location and size but also about the pRF shape characteristics. The elongation (ellipticity) of pRFs decreases along the early visual hierarchy to a different degree for the ventral and the dorsal stream. Furthermore, ellipticity changes as a function of eccentricity. pRF orientation shows a high degree of collinearity with its angular position within the visual field. Using model-free pRF measurements, the traveling wave technique provides additional characteristics of pRF topographies that are not restricted to size and provide robust measures within the single subject.