Generation of Black-Dominant Responses in V1 Cortex

Consistent with human perceptual data, we found many more black-dominant than white-dominant responses in layer 2/3 neurons of the macaque primary visual cortex (V1). Seeking the mechanism of this black dominance of layer 2/3 neurons, we measured the laminar pattern of population responses (multiunit activity and local field potential) and found that a small preference for black is observable in early responses in layer 4C beta, the parvocellular-input layer, but not in the magnocellular-input layer 4C alpha. Surprisingly, further analysis of the dynamics of black-white responses in layers 4C beta and 2/3 suggested that black-dominant responses in layer 2/3 were not generated simply because of the weak black-dominant inputs from 4C beta. Instead, our results indicated the neural circuitry in V1 is wired with a preference to strengthen black responses. We hypothesize that this selective wiring could be due to (1) feedforward connectivity from black-dominant neurons in layer 4C to cells in layer 2/3 or (2) recurrent interactions between black-dominant neurons in layer 2/3, or a combination of both.