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J T Xue

Publications and source records attributed to J T Xue.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

An intrinsic oscillation in interneurons of the rat lateral geniculate nucleus.

By using the whole cell patch recording technique in vitro, we examined the voltage-dependent firing patterns of 69 interneurons in the rat dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). When held at a hyperpolarized membrane potential, all interneurons responded with a burst of action potentials. In 48 interneurons, larger current pulses produced a bursting oscillation. When relatively depolarized, some interneurons produced a tonic train of action potentials in response to a depolarizing current pulse. However, most interneurons produced only oscillations, regardless of polarization level. The oscillation was insensitive to the bath application of a combination of blockers to excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission, including 30 microM 6,7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione, 100 microM (+/-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid, 20 microM bicuculline, and 2 mM saclofen, suggesting an intrinsic event. The frequency of the oscillation in interneurons was dependent on the intensity of the injection current. Increasing current intensity increased the oscillation frequency. The maximal frequency of the oscillation was 5-15 Hz for most cells, with some ambiguity caused by the difficulty of precisely defining a transition from oscillatory to regular firing behavior. In contrast, the interneuron oscillation was little affected by preceding depolarizing and hyperpolarizing pulses. In addition to being elicited by depolarizing current injections, the oscillation could also be initiated by electrical stimulation of the optic tract when the interneurons were held at a depolarized membrane potential. This suggests that interneurons may be recruited into thalamic oscillations by synaptic inputs. These results indicate that interneurons may play a larger role in thalamic oscillations than was previously thought.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1994

Effects of aging on the primate visual system: spatial and temporal processing by lateral geniculate neurons in young adult and old rhesus monkeys.

1. Visual abilities decline during normal aging, and many of these declines are due to neural changes in the retina or central visual pathways. We have begun studies of the primate visual system to investigate the location and nature of these changes as well as to answer general questions about the effects of aging on neural function. We began with the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) because it is the main structure through which visual information passes on the way to cortex and because the parallel parvocellular and magnocellular pathways, which may be affected differently by aging, are anatomically distinct there. 2. Single-cell recordings were made in the LGN of young adult (5-16 yr) and old (25-28 yr) rhesus monkeys. We made quantitative measures of a wide variety of response properties for a large number of parvocellular (n = 257) and magnocellular (n = 113) neurons in the two groups of animals. As a result, in addition to studying the effects of aging, we were able to make quantitative comparisons between parvocellular and magnocellular neurons using larger samples than have been studied previously and for some properties that have not been studied before. 3. We found that magnocellular neurons have significantly higher maximal response rates and signal-to-noise ratios than parvocellular neurons. However, response latencies to visual stimulation were similar for neurons in the two types of layers. In agreement with previous studies, magnocellular neurons had higher maximal contrast sensitivity and higher contrast gain than parvocellular neurons. However, the sensitivity difference occurred because nearly all of the neurons with low sensitivities (< 10) were in the parvocellular layers, not because neurons in the magnocellular layers had the highest sensitivities. 4. Neurons with the smallest receptive-field centers, the highest spatial-frequency resolutions, and the highest optimal spatial frequencies were found in the parvocellular layers. However, the overall distributions of each of these properties overlapped substantially for neurons in the two types of layers, and the mean values were not significantly different. The mean high temporal-frequency cutoff was significantly higher for magnocellular than parvocellular neurons, but the difference was small (only 3 Hz), and it occurred because many parvocellular neurons had lower cutoffs than any seen in the magnocellular layers, not because magnocellular neurons had the highest temporal-frequency cutoffs. Parvocellular neurons also had narrower temporal-frequency tuning than magnocellular neurons. However, there was no significant difference in optimal temporal frequency.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Aging↗
PubMed1994

[Binocular competitive mechanisms in the visual cortex in early developing kittens of monocular deprivation and reverse suture revealed by pattern visual evoked potential].

Using contrast reversing square- wave gratings as stimuli the pattern visual evoked potentials (P-VEP) and pattern electroretinograms (P-ERG) were simultaneously recorded to determine the spatial frequency tuning curves for kittens of monocular deprivation (from 8th to 12th postnatal week) and reverse suture (from 12th to 15th postnatal week), as compared with those of normal kittens of the same age and adult cats. The results showed that in the range from spatial frequency 0.12 to 1.5 c/d the amplitudes of P-VEP responses driven respectively by the left and the right eyes in normal kittens were similar but clearly smaller than those driven binocularly. For kittens with one eye deprived, the P-VEP amplitudes driven by the deprived eye decreased markedly. In contrast, the P-VEP amplitudes driven by the undeprived eye increased significantly, while the P-VEP amplitudes driven by simultaneous stimulation of both eyes were intermediate between the two monocular responses. For the reversely sutured kittens, the P-VEP amplitudes driven by the formally deprived eye recovered to some extent, while the P-VEP amplitudes driven by the reversely sutured eye decreased, and their amplitudes tended to be quite close. The P-VEP amplitude driven by both eyes was the biggest. Neither such shift of spatial frequency tuning curves of the P-VEP in adult cats, nor such functional competition between the two eye in P-ERG responses during early development of kittens of monocular deprivation and reverse suture was found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Binocular processing in the cat's dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. III. Spatial frequency, orientation, and direction sensitivity of nondominant-eye influences.

The present experiments examined the extent to which binocular processing in the cat's dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) depends upon the spatial frequency, orientation, and direction of movement of stimuli presented to the nondominant eye. In Experiment 1, we tested the effects of varying these stimulus parameters on the responses of LGN cells to nondominant-eye stimulation. Sixteen of 34 cells tested had statistically significant responses to the nondominant eye and, in agreement with a previous study (Guido et al. 1989), the responsive cells were spatial-frequency sensitive. However, there was little evidence for orientation or direction sensitivity in responses to the nondominant eye: changes in discharge with changes in stimulus orientation and direction were small and were statistically significant in only nine of the cells. In Experiment 2, we tested the effects of varying spatial frequency, orientation, and direction of movement of stimuli presented to the nondominant eye on its ability to influence responses to the dominant eye (i.e., on binocular interactions). The dominant eye was stimulated with the optimal spatial frequency for the cell being tested. For 22 of 45 cells tested, nondominant-eye stimulation had a statistically significant effect on the response to the dominant eye. Fourteen of these cells showed band-pass spatial-frequency sensitivity in the nondominant-eye influence, and eight showed low-pass spatial-frequency sensitivity. However, only 11 of the cells had statistically significant variations in their binocular interactions that depended on the orientation or direction of stimuli presented to the nondominant eye. Furthermore, even for those cells, the effect of varying orientation and direction was only about half as strong as the effect of varying spatial frequency. We conclude that binocular processing in the LGN, including responses to the nondominant eye and nondominant-eye influences on responses to the dominant eye, are affected significantly by the spatial frequency of the nondominant-eye stimulus and relatively little by stimulus orientation or direction of movement. The significance of these findings for understanding the functions of LGN binocular processing is discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1988

Binocular interaction in the perigeniculate nucleus of the cat.

We have recorded from single cells in the perigeniculate nucleus (PGN) of the cat to determine their response properties. Quantitative tests have been conducted with sinusoidal gratings. Using optimal stimulus parameters, determined monocularly, we explored binocular interaction by varying the relative phase between dichoptically presented gratings. Monocularly, cells exhibit varying degrees of response specificities with respect to stimulus orientation and spatial frequency. Binocularly, we have identified six types of response. The most prominent, type 1, found for half the cells, is phase-specific binocular interaction at the fundamental frequency component of the drifting grating. For these cells, mean response rate is independent of interocular phase. The remaining types of binocular responses involve varying degrees of interaction at different harmonic components. For a quarter of the sample, no binocular interaction was observed. To investigate the role of cortical input to PGN, visual cortex was removed from some cats. Subsequent study of PGN cells indicated that response properties were generally similar to those found in intact animals. We conclude that PGN response properties are determined primarily by subcortical inputs.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1987

Binocular interaction in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat.

We have investigated binocular interaction in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the cat. Neurons were recorded extracellularly during visual stimulation with sinusoidal gratings which were presented at different interocular phases (disparities). The large majority of cells (91%) exhibited some type of binocular interaction. For 75% and 16% of the total number of cells, the binocular interaction was inhibitory or facilitatory, respectively. For the remaining 9% of cells, no interaction was evident. In marked distinction from visual cortex, the facilitatory and inhibitory interactions in the LGN are independent of the relative interocular phase of the patterns. Neurons in the LGN are therefore insensitive to the stereoscopic depth cue, retinal disparity.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Influence of the superior colliculus on responses of lateral geniculate neurons in the cat.

The superior colliculus (SC) projects to all layers of the cat's lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and thus is in a position to influence information transmission through the LGN. We investigated the function of the tecto-geniculate pathway by studying the responses of cat LGN neurons before, during, and after inactivating the SC with microinjections of lidocaine. The LGN cells were stimulated with drifting sine-wave gratings that varied in spatial frequency and contrast. Among 71 LGN neurons that were studied, 53 showed a statistically significant change in response during SC inactivation. Control experiments with mock injections indicated that some changes could be attributed to slow waxing and waning of responsiveness over time. However, this could not account for all of the effects of SC inactivation that were observed. Forty cells showed changes that were attributed to the removal of tecto-geniculate influences. About equal numbers of cells showed increases (22 cells) and decreases (18 cells) in some aspect of their response to visual stimuli during SC inactivation. The proportion of cells that showed tecto-geniculate influences was somewhat higher in the C layers (68% of the cells) than in the A layers (44% of the cells). In addition, among cells that showed a significant change in maximal response to visual stimulation, the change was larger for cells in the C layers (64% average change) than in the A layers (26% average change) and it was larger for W cells (61% average change) than for X and Y cells (29% average change). Nearly all of the X cells that showed changes had an increase in response, and nearly all of the Y cells had a decrease in response. In addition, across all cell classes, 80% of the cells with receptive fields < 15 deg from the area centralis had an increase in response, and 80% of the cells with receptive fields > or = 15 deg from the area centralis had a decrease in response. None of the LGN cells had significant changes in spatial resolution, and only three cells had changes in optimal spatial frequency. Ten cells had a change in contrast threshold, 25 cells had a change in contrast gain, and 29 cells had a change in the maximal response to a high-contrast stimulus. Thus, our results suggest that the tecto-geniculate pathway has little or no effect on spatial processing by LGN neurons. Rather, the major influence is on maximal response levels and the relationship between response and stimulus contrast.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗