Brain Structure and Function Quiz

Brain Inflation and Visual Mapping

• Brain inflation reveals the surface area of the folded brain, crucial for fitting its size within the skull.
• Folding maximises surface area to accommodate complex neural networks.

Lateralization

• Information from the left visual field (LVF) lands on the right hemisphere and vice versa.
• Information from the left side of each eye ends up in the right hemisphere, and vice versa.

Localization: Historical Approaches

• Henschen (1896) used perimetry and post-mortem anatomy to study visual field deficits.
• Issues with widespread pathology made it difficult to pinpoint specific brain regions affected.
• Damage to the lower part of the occipital lobe affects the lower visual field.
  • Small lesions in the occipital lobe, like those caused by bullets, are valuable for mapping specific visual field deficits.
• Projectile damage studies provided valuable information on the impact of occipital damage.
• The Holmes Visual Field Map demonstrated that lesions anteriorly (forward) cause peripheral vision impairment, while posteriorly (back) cause central vision problems.
• Lesions progressively forward in the brain cause vision damage that progressively affects peripheral vision.
  • Lesions progressing from lower parts of the brain to higher regions affecting visual fields like a clock.
• Naturally occurring lesions in the brain are also a valuable way of studying these mapping effects.

Animal Models: Exquisite Detail

• Single-unit recordings in animal models provide precise detail of neural responses.
• Toottle's work presented visual stimuli and studied activity in visual cortex of a flattened brain.
• Retinotopic maps are preserved across the striate cortex (V1) of the brain.

Post-Mortem Anatomy in Humans

• Post-mortem anatomy allows for detailed study in humans, often employing one eye in studies related to eye loss.
• Flattening of the brain reveals details and allows researchers to observe columns of brain cells, essential features in brain function.
• Occular dominance columns can be studied via post-mortem anatomy.

Functional Modules: Electrophysiology

• A hypercolumn is a functional module in V1, central to primary visual cortex.
• It processes information from both eyes.
• Orientation preference in receptive fields of neurons is an important parameter in understanding how different areas and cells in the primary visual cortex function.

Summary: Visual Mapping Techniques

• Lesion studies contribute insight into visual area specialization.
• Single-unit electrophysiology provides fine-grained detail on neural processing in layers, columns, and blobs within the primary visual cortex (V1).
• Functional specialisation at a finer scale than lesion studies.

PET (Positron Emission Tomography)

• PET provides rough mapping of human visual systems and reveals functional specializations within these regions.
• PET measures metabolic activity in the human brain.
• Radioactive oxygen is used to label water molecules.

Visual Mapping with PET

• PET is used to study cerebral blood flow in visual perception.
• Baseline blood flow measurements are subtracted from those obtained during targeted visual stimuli like checkerboards.
• The resulting activity maps show increased activity in the occipital lobe related to stimulus location.
• Central vision is represented more interiorly/deeply compared to peripheral vision in the brain maps.

Color and Motion Processing

• V4 is a region specialized for processing color.
• Brain regions are specialized to process motion.

fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Visual Field Mapping

• fMRI is used to map visual field eccentricity, measuring activity associated with visual stimuli at various locations, moving from the central fixation point.
• Activity patterns in the occipital lobe reflect eccentricities or different locations/positions in the visual field.

fMRI Visual Field Mapping - Polar Angle

• Changes in stimuli polar angle from central fixation point are studied.
• Activity maps show a relationship between visual stimulus angle and active brain regions.

Primary Visual Cortex: Holmes Maps

• Many maps exist within the cortex to encode different aspects of the visual system and processing.
• The brain dedicates more processing to areas where we see well.

Multiple Visual Fields

• Experimentally measure visual attributes (e.g., color, speed) and their impact on different specialized areas within the cortex.

Shape Processing: TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

• TMS was used to identify functional specializations in shape perception (compared to visual orientation) in specific visual cortices (V1,V2).

Double Dissociation

• Double dissociation between the processing area for spatial and shape attributes in the visual cortex identified within this research.

Reshaping Visual Maps

• Retinal damage related to visual perceptual abnormalities, and related cortical plasticity.
• Visual remapping is shown to occur in particular situations like birth defects related to vision.
• Age plays a key role in the type remapping of visual information.

Anatomical Imaging

• Anatomical imaging is used to study changes in the brain related to visual abnormalities.

Corresponding Information

• Study results relating to visual mapping with different forms of cortical imaging and neural analysis were used to compare.

Test your knowledge on brain inflation, lateralization, and localization of visual processing. This quiz covers historical approaches to understanding brain damage and its effects on visual fields. Delve into the complexities of how our brains manage visual information.