As many of the reported results hinge upon stimulus choice, a second topic of review in this paper is the stimuli used to map LGN responses, in particular natural scenes and noise that statistically imitates

natural scenes (often called 1/f noise as its power spectrum mimics that of natural Selleck Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Library scenes, although it lacks phase information that characterizes shapes in natural scenes). Using natural stimuli is important in a neuroethological context, especially if the aim is translational as clinical tools that interact with the LGN may need to do so in a natural environment (Bourkiza et al., 2013, Pezaris and Eskandar, 2009 and Pezaris and Reid, 2007). A variety of methods have been used in the studies included here; we will, in particular, examine the different animal models (i.e. cat and monkey) used and touch upon the resulting biases that may exist in the literature. Hubel and Wiesel’s original work was with both cats and primates, but much of the later work in the field Selleckchem GSK126 has been done only in cats. While the cat visual system has proven to be a robust and capable experimental model, there are some fundamental differences between cat and primate visual pathways which make comparative studies important. Significant work with naturalistic stimuli

(e.g. natural scenes and 1/f noise) has been performed in the cat LGN (Butts et al., 2007, Lesica and Stanley, 2004, Simoncelli and Olshausen, 2001 and Stanley et al., 1999), but natural scene statistics have rarely been employed in studying the primate visual system. We conclude the review by highlighting a need for further experiments to detail RF properties of LGN with an emphasis on using the alert primate preparation. Early studies established that RFs have extent in both space and time, and thus a complete characterization requires spatio-temporal information. This realization led to the eventual application of white noise analysis and reverse correlation, derived from

linear systems analysis, for the generation of accurate neuronal RF maps (DeAngelis et al., 1995). The groundbreaking work of Kuffler followed by Hubel and Wiesel determined the basic characteristics of CRFs Interleukin-3 receptor in the retina and the LGN (Hubel and Wiesel, 1961 and Kuffler, 1953), demonstrating an approximately circular center/surround organization. They described on-center cells, neurons that have increased firing when bright stimuli are placed in center of the RF and off-center cells, neurons that have increased firing when relatively dark stimuli are placed in center of the RF (see Fig. 2). Insightfully, Kuffler also described the presence of factors that were indirectly involved in RGC output, perhaps the earliest mention of ECRF-like effects, factors that “may well involve areas which are somewhat remote from a ganglion cell and by themselves do not setup discharges” ( Kuffler, 1953).