Briefly describe how orientation selectivity is created in the primary visual co

Question

Briefly describe how orientation selectivity is created in the primary visual cortex (V1). In your answer be sure to describe: (1) What orientation selectivity is and at what stage in the visual pathway neurons first acquire this response property, (2) How it is currently hypothesized that neurons respond in an orientation selective manner, and (3) What the range of orientation selective responses for each neuron tells us about how objects are likely coded (e.g. ‘labeled-line’ vs ‘population’ coding)

Explanation / Answer

1. Orientation selectivity is the property of V1 neurons by which they respond more to lines bars or edges of a particular orientation but not to the orthogonal orientation.

It is acquired at birth. Like other parts of the brain the visual cortex at this period undergoes a critical phase where visual environment can change the orientation of visual maps due to its plastic nature.

2. Hubel and Wiesel proposed a model in which multiple spatially offset lateral geniculate nucleus relay cells with circularly symmetric receptive fields converge on a single V1 neuron to generate elongated receptive fields.

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