My laboratory is focused on understanding these processes in neocortical areas. In vivo optical imaging of orientation and direction preference maps from a ferret on postnatal day 45. The imaged region includes the primary visual cortex and parts of the adjacent area 18. Four of these stimulus combinations are shown here. Stimulus orientation and direction of movement is indicated by red bars or arrows.
Active areas appear as black zones.
In these maps each pixel represents the result of the vector summation of responses to the eight individual stimuli. Typical bead injection patterns. On the right typical injection points guided by the blood vessel pattern are shown. The patterns of the fluorescent marker injections are clearly visible and can be used to guide placement of recording pipettes and choice of the mapped region for photostimulation of synaptic inputs. The best studied model system is the visual cortex of the mammalian forebrain.