Abstract:
A fundamental function of the visual system is to construct a 3D representation of the scene from 2D retinal input. However, little is known the underlying neural mechanisms of representing 3D orientation. The superior temporal poly-sensory area (STP), which are assumed to be at different hierarchical levels of the dorsal visual pathway, was supposed to play an important role in spatial vision and may be involved in encoding 3D object orientation. Here, we investigate whether neurons in area STP signal the 3D surface orientation (as parameterized by tilt and slant) of planar surfaces that were depicted by random-dot stereograms containing a linear gradient of horizontal disparities. We found STP neurons jointly encode disparity, slant and tilt. Approximately 58.8% of STP neurons were significantly tuned to disparity. And 64.7% and 74.5% of STP neurons were significantly tuned to slant and tilt. These results suggest that STP plays a fundamental role in the visual encoding of 3D object orientation.
Biography:
Aihua Chen is Head of the Laboratory of Sensation and Action, Institute of Brain Functional Genomics at East China Normal University. She graduated from Nanjing University with a B.S. degree in Biological Science and Technology (2000), and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Neurophysiology at Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Then she conducted a postdoctoral research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Department of Anatomy and Neurophysiology. She joined ECNU as a faculty member in 2012.
Sponsored by the NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai