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Updated: Jun 27, 2025
07:08
Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
Published on: August 1, 2018
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Feature-selective responses in macaque visual cortex follow eye movements during natural vision
Will Xiao1,2, Saloni Sharma3, Gabriel Kreiman4
1Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. xiaow@fas.harvard.edu.
Nature Neuroscience
|April 29, 2024
Summary
During natural vision, primate visual neurons primarily use an eye-centered reference frame, with responses consistently tracking gaze shifts rather than anticipating them or integrating viewing history.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Primates actively move their eyes using saccades during natural vision.
- Uncertainty exists regarding whether visual neurons maintain retinotopic properties or adapt to gaze shifts in complex scenes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the reference frame of visual neurons during natural primate vision.
- To determine if neuronal responses anticipate gaze shifts or reflect stable perception.
Main Methods:
- Recorded neuronal responses from six visual areas in 13 monkeys viewing natural images.
- Analyzed spatial, temporal, and feature selectivity across 4.6 million fixations and 883 hours of data.
- Utilized computational models to analyze receptive field properties.
Main Results:
- Face-selective neurons and general feature-selective responses tracked receptive field contents and eye movements.
- Neuronal responses remained gaze-dependent over extended viewing periods.
- Found limited evidence for predictive remapping and no viewing-history integration.
Conclusions:
- Ventral visual neurons predominantly operate within an eye-centered reference frame during natural vision.
- Neuronal representations are dynamically updated with gaze shifts, not based on prior viewing history.
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