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Poster E in Poster Session E: Thursday, August 6, 10:30 am – 12:15 pm, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

Geometric Constraints in the Development of Primate Extrastriate Visual Cortex

Hyunju Kim¹, Michael Arcaro², Nabil Imam¹; ¹Georgia Institute of Technology, ²University of Pennsylvania

Presenter: Hyunju Kim

Although the mechanisms establishing primary sensory maps are well characterized, how higher-order maps emerge across neocortex remains unclear. Here we present a growth model that operates on the folded cortical surface of macaque visual cortex, using fMRI-measured V1 retinotopy as its only functional anchor. Through distance-dependent activity correlations and competition among developing projections, cortical organization self-organizes without any specification of areal boundaries, map orientations, or topographic layouts. This process gives rise to multiple retinotopic maps exhibiting systematic mirror reversals and smooth gradients that closely recapitulate fMRI-derived extrastriate organization. Parameters fit to a population template generalize across individual macaques, and individual cortical geometry accounts for fine-scale map variation. These results show that algorithmic growth rules operating on realistic folded cortical surfaces produce stereotyped higher-order retinotopic organization under minimal explicit specification.

Topic Area: Computational Models of Vision & Visual Cortex