Processing of motion boundary orientation in macaque V2

Human and nonhuman primates are good at identifying an object based on its motion, a task that is believed to be carried out by the ventral visual pathway. However, the neural mechanisms underlying such ability remains unclear. We trained macaque monkeys to do orientation discrimination for motion boundaries (MBs) and recorded neuronal response in area V2 with microelectrode arrays. We found 10.9% of V2 neurons exhibited robust orientation selectivity to MBs, and their responses correlated with monkeys' orientation-discrimination performances. Furthermore, the responses of V2 direction-selective neurons recorded at the same time showed correlated activity with MB neurons for particular MB stimuli, suggesting that these motion-sensitive neurons made specific functional contributions to MB discrimination tasks. Our findings support the view that V2 plays a critical role in MB analysis and may achieve this through a neural circuit within area V2.

Automated summary

Macaque monkeys were trained to discriminate motion boundaries, and results showed that V2 neurons exhibited orientation selectivity to motion boundaries and correlated with monkeys' performance. Additionally, direction-selective neurons in V2 showed correlated activity with motion boundary neurons for specific stimuli, suggesting a specific functional contribution in motion boundary discrimination tasks. These findings support the critical role of V2 in motion boundary analysis through a neural circuit.