Petersen S E, Robinson D L, Keys W
J Neurophysiol. 1985 Oct;54(4):867-86. doi: 10.1152/jn.1985.54.4.867.
We have examined the properties of neurons in three subdivisions of the pulvinar of alert, trained rhesus monkeys 1) an inferior, retinotopically mapped area (PI), 2) a lateral, retinotopically organized region (PL), and 3) a dorsomedial visual portion of the lateral pulvinar (Pdm), which has a crude retinotopic organization. We tested the neurons for visual responses to stationary and moving stimuli and for changes in these responses produced by behavioral manipulations. All areas contain cells sensitive to stimulus orientation as well as neurons selective for the direction of stimulus movement; however, the majority of cells in all three regions are either broadly tuned or nonselective for these attributes. Nearly all cells respond to stimulus onset, a significant number also give a response to stimulus termination, and rarely a cell gives only off responses. Nearly all cells increase their discharge rate to visual stimuli. Receptive fields in the two retinotopically mapped regions, PI and PL, have well-defined borders. The sizes of these receptive fields show a positive correlation with the eccentricity of the receptive fields. The receptive fields in the remaining region, Pdm, are frequently very large, but with these large fields excluded, show a similar correlation with eccentricity. All pulvinar cells tested (n = 20) were mapped in retinal coordinates; the receptive fields are positioned in relation to the retina. We found no cells with gaze-gated characteristics (2), nor cells mapped in a spatial coordinate system. The response latencies in PI and PL are shorter and less variable than the latencies in Pdm. Active use of a stimulus can produce an enhancement or attenuation of the visual response. Eye-movement modulation was found in all three subdivisions in about equal frequencies. Attentional modulation was common in Pdm and was rare in PI and PL. The modulation is spatially selective in Pdm and nonselective in PI for a small number of tested cells. These data demonstrate functional differences between Pdm and the other two areas and suggest that Pdm plays a role in selective visual attention, whereas PI and PL probably contribute to other aspects of visual perception.
我们研究了警觉的、受过训练的恒河猴丘脑枕三个亚区神经元的特性：1）一个下级的、视网膜拓扑映射区域（PI），2）一个外侧的、视网膜拓扑组织区域（PL），以及3）外侧丘脑枕的一个背内侧视觉部分（Pdm），该部分具有粗略的视网膜拓扑组织。我们测试了神经元对静止和移动刺激的视觉反应，以及行为操作所引起的这些反应的变化。所有区域均包含对刺激方向敏感的细胞以及对刺激运动方向具有选择性的神经元；然而，这三个区域中的大多数细胞对这些属性的调谐范围较宽或不具有选择性。几乎所有细胞对刺激开始均有反应，相当数量的细胞对刺激终止也有反应，仅有极少数细胞仅产生撤反应。几乎所有细胞对视觉刺激都会增加其放电率。在两个视网膜拓扑映射区域PI和PL中，感受野具有明确的边界。这些感受野的大小与感受野的偏心率呈正相关。其余区域Pdm中的感受野通常非常大，但排除这些大感受野后，与偏心率呈现出类似的相关性。所有测试的丘脑枕细胞（n = 20）均以视网膜坐标进行映射；感受野相对于视网膜定位。我们未发现具有注视门控特性的细胞（2个），也未发现以空间坐标系映射的细胞。PI和PL中的反应潜伏期比Pdm中的潜伏期更短且变化更小。积极使用刺激可增强或减弱视觉反应。在所有三个亚区均发现眼动调制，频率大致相等。注意调制在Pdm中很常见，而在PI和PL中很少见。对于少数测试细胞，Pdm中的调制具有空间选择性，而PI中的调制不具有选择性。这些数据证明了Pdm与其他两个区域之间的功能差异，并表明Pdm在选择性视觉注意中起作用，而PI和PL可能在视觉感知的其他方面发挥作用。
