Hubel D H, Livingstone M S
Department of Animal Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
J Neurosci. 1987 Nov;7(11):3378-415. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-11-03378.1987.
Primate visual cortical area 18 (visual area 2), when stained for the enzyme cytochrome oxidase, shows a pattern of alternating dark and light stripes; in squirrel monkeys, the dark stripes are clearly of 2 alternating types, thick and thin. We have recorded from these 3 subdivisions in macaques and squirrel monkeys, and find that each has distinctive physiological properties: (1) Cells in one set of dark stripes, in squirrel monkeys the thin stripes, are not orientation-selective; a high proportion show color-opponency. (2) Cells in the other set of dark stripes (thick stripes) are orientation-selective; most of them are also selective for binocular disparity, suggesting that they are concerned with stereoscopic depth. (3) Cells in the pale stripes are also orientation-selective and more than half of them are end-stopped. Each of the 3 subdivisions receives a different input from area 17: the thin stripes from the blobs, the pale stripes from the interblobs, the thick stripes from layer 4B. The pale stripes are thus part of the parvocellular system, and the thick stripes part of the magnocellular system. The physiological properties of the cells in the thin and pale stripes reflect the properties of their antecedent cells in 17, but nevertheless exhibit differences that suggest the kinds of processing that might occur at this stage.
灵长类动物的视觉皮层18区（视觉区2），在用细胞色素氧化酶染色时，呈现出明暗相间的条纹图案；在松鼠猴中，暗条纹明显有两种交替类型，即粗条纹和细条纹。我们在猕猴和松鼠猴的这三个细分区域进行了记录，发现每个区域都有独特的生理特性：（1）在松鼠猴的一组暗条纹中，即细条纹中的细胞不具有方向选择性；很大一部分细胞表现出颜色拮抗。（2）另一组暗条纹（粗条纹）中的细胞具有方向选择性；它们中的大多数对双眼视差也有选择性，这表明它们与立体深度有关。（3）浅条纹中的细胞也具有方向选择性，并且其中一半以上是终端抑制的。这三个细分区域各自从17区接收不同的输入：细条纹接收来自斑点的输入，浅条纹接收来自斑点间的输入，粗条纹接收来自4B层的输入。因此，浅条纹是小细胞系统的一部分，粗条纹是大细胞系统的一部分。细条纹和浅条纹中细胞的生理特性反映了它们在17区的前体细胞的特性，但仍然表现出差异，这表明了在这个阶段可能发生的处理类型。
