Cortical column design: A link between the maps of preferred orientation and orientation tuning strength? (Q1310573)

We demonstrate that the map of the preferred orientations and the corresponding map of the orientation tuning strengths as measured with optimal imaging are not independent, but that band-pass filtering of the preferred orientation map at each location yields a good approximation of the orientation tuning strength. Bandpass filtering is performed by convolving the map of orientation preference with its own autocorrelation function. We suggest an interpretation of the autocorrelation function of the preferred orientations as synaptic coupling function, i.e., synaptic strength as a function of intracortical distance between cortical cells. We present a model for the generation of both maps from a single computational concept. The model is based on inverse Fourier transforms of rather simple two-dimensional annulus-shaped spectra which will produce a column structure very similar to real data. Thus, our approach shows that the complex appearance of cortical orientation columns has a rather simple description in the Fourier domain. Our theoretical analysis explains why singularities in the cortex do not have vorticities other than \(\pm 1/2\), a result which corresponds to recent experimental findings.