Exam 3: The Visual Brain

In Ungerleider and Mishkin's (1982) study of the ventral and dorsal pathways in the brain, monkeys were trained to find food in a covered bin using either a landmark or an object to identify the correct bin. Following lesions of the inferotemporal cortex, they were no longer able to successfully:

Briefly describe the lesion studies on monkeys performed by Schiller and Logothetis (1990) and Ungerleider and Mishkin (1982). How similar were their methods? Describe the findings of each experiment, and explain the reasoning they used to draw their conclusions.

The responses of an individual simple cell do not give the visual system enough information to unambiguously determine orientation. Which additional factors should be kept in mind to understand the way in which the visual system gets the information it needs?

Which statement is TRUE regarding a simple cell?

The parvocellular layers of the LGN have neurons:

Solie can perceive individual small objects but is unable to perceive very large objects such as buildings. Which area is MOST likely damaged?

The study by O'Connor et al. (2002) that used fMRI to investigate the effects of attention on the activity level of the left or right lateral geniculate nucleus, found that:

An electrode is inserted obliquely into area V1. Describe the changes in the characteristics of the neurons successively encountered as the electrode penetrates deeper into V1. A second electrode is inserted perpendicularly into area V1. What are the characteristics of the successively encountered neurons as the second electrode penetrates deeper into V1?

If a researcher inserts a recording electrode into V1 perpendicular to the surface of the cortex so that the electrode encounters neurons within a single column, the person in such a situation will encounter receptive fields of those neurons:

Signals from the nasal retina of the left eye travel to _____ cerebral hemisphere(s) of the brain.

Simple cells A and B have receptive fields at the same location on the retina but have different preferred orientations, as shown by these orientation tuning curves: a preferred orientation of 90° for simple cell A and 75° for simple cell B. What happens when the receptive field location on the retina is illuminated by a bar of light oriented at 90°?

Draw the geometric pattern of neuron activity that occurs across area V1 when viewing an equilateral triangle that points rightward and whose center is at fixation. (See the figure on representation of simple shapes in V1 to model your response.)

Studies using fMRI have identified that the fusiform face area (FFA) is found in the:

Single-cell recordings have shown that neurons in the middle temporal area (MT) tend to respond BEST to:

According to cortical magnification in V1, what is the reason that leads to a greater amount of cortical territory devoted to the central part of the visual field than the amount devoted to the periphery?

The location in the visual pathway where the optic nerve from each eye splits in half is called the:

A neuroprosthetic device that uses relatively fewer electrodes to stimulate the parts of V1 corresponding to the fovea aims to:

How many koniocellular layers are there in the lateral geniculate nucleus in the right hemisphere of the brain?

Which retinal ganglion cells send signals to the koniocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus?

Achromatopsia is an inability to: