Primary Visual Cortex

Primary Visual Cortex

1. also known as "striate cortex"

2. first cortical area to process visual information

3. Neurons of V1

   • receptive fields
     • respond to "bars of stimuli" in different orientations

4. Retinotopic layout

   • each point on the retina corresponds to a specific part of area V1
   • Distortion
     • fovea centralis has greater conc. of ganglion cells = taking up more physical area of V1
     • peripheral vision has less ganglion cells = compressed area on V1

5. hypercolumn

   • cortical chunk where all visual functions accommodate for a specific area in the retinal field