Stimulus-dependent interaction between the visual areas 17 and 18 of the 2 hemispheres of the ferret (Mustela putorius).

To study how the visual areas of the 2 hemispheres interact in processing visual stimuli we have recorded local field potentials in the callosally connected parts of areas 17 and 18 of the ferret during the presentation of 3 kinds of stimuli: 2.5 degrees squares flashed for 50 ms randomly in the visual field (S1), 4 full-field gratings differing in orientation by 45 degrees and identical in the 2 hemifields (S2) and gratings as above but whose orientation and/or direction of motion differed by 90 degrees in the 2 hemifields (S3). The gratings remained stationary for 0.5 s and then moved in 1 of the 2 directions perpendicular to their orientation for 3 s. We compared the responses in baseline conditions with those obtained whereas the contralateral visual areas were inactivated by cooling. Cooling did not affect the responses to S1 but it modified those to S2 and to S3 generally increasing early components of the response while decreasing later components. These findings indicate that interhemispheric processing is restricted to visual stimuli which achieve spatial summation and that it involves complex inhibitory and facilitatory effects, possibly carried out by interhemispheric pathways of different conduction velocity.

A novel interhemispheric interaction: modulation of neuronal cooperativity in the visual areas.

BACKGROUND: The cortical representation of the visual field is split along the vertical midline, with the left and the right hemi-fields projecting to separate hemispheres. Connections between the visual areas of the two hemispheres are abundant near the representation of the visual midline. It was suggested that they re-establish the functional continuity of the visual field by controlling the dynamics of the responses in the two hemispheres. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To understand if and how the interactions between the two hemispheres participate in processing visual stimuli, the synchronization of responses to identical or different moving gratings in the two hemi-fields were studied in anesthetized ferrets. The responses were recorded by multiple electrodes in the primary visual areas and the synchronization of local field potentials across the electrodes were analyzed with a recent method derived from dynamical system theory. Inactivating the visual areas of one hemisphere modulated the synchronization of the stimulus-driven activity in the other hemisphere. The modulation was stimulus-specific and was consistent with the fine morphology of callosal axons in particular with the spatio-temporal pattern of activity that axonal geometry can generate. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings describe a new kind of interaction between the cerebral hemispheres and highlight the role of axonal geometry in modulating aspects of cortical dynamics responsible for stimulus detection and/or categorization.