{"id":23313,"date":"2019-06-27T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T18:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/?post_type=disclosure&p=23313"},"modified":"2019-06-27T12:08:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T19:08:47","slug":"deciphering-how-the-brain-encodes-color-and-shape","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/zh\/news-release\/deciphering-how-the-brain-encodes-color-and-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciphering how the brain encodes color and shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

LA JOLLA\u2014There are hundreds of thousands of distinct colors and shapes that a person can distinguish visually, but how does the brain process all of this information? Scientists previously believed that the visual system initially encodes shape and color with different sets of neurons and then combines them much later. But a new study from Salk researchers, published in \u79d1\u5b66<\/em><\/a> on June 27, 2019, shows that there are neurons that respond selectively to particular combinations of color and shape.<\/p>\n

\"Peichao
From left: Peichao Li, Edward Callaway and Anupam Garg.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for a high-resolution image.<\/p>\n

Credit: Salk Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNew genetic sensors and imaging technologies have allowed us to more thoroughly test the link between visual circuits that process color and shape,\u201d says Edward Callaway<\/a>, senior author and professor in Salk\u2019s Systems Neurobiology Laboratory. \u201cThese findings provide valuable insight about how visual circuits are connected and organized in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to a digital camera sensor, light-sensitive cells in the eye (photoreceptors) detect wavelengths of light within specific ranges and at particular locations. This information then travels through the optic nerve to neurons in the visual cortex that interpret the information and begin to decipher the contents of the picture. Scientists long thought that color and shape were extracted separately and then combined only at the highest brain centers, but the new Salk research shows that they are combined much earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of our study was to better understand how the visual system processes colors and shapes of visual stimuli,\u201d says co-first author Anupam Garg, who is a University of California San Diego MD\/PhD student in the Callaway lab. \u201cWe wanted to apply new imaging techniques to answer these longstanding questions about visual processing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers used imaging technology combined with genetically expressed sensors to study the function of thousands of individual neurons involved in processing color and shape in the primary visual cortex. During long recording periods, roughly 500 possible combinations of color and shape were tested to find the stimulus that best activated each visually-responsive neuron.<\/p>\n

The team found that visual neurons selectively responded to color and shape along a continuum\u2014while some neurons were only activated by either a specific color or shape, many other neurons were responsive to a particular color and shape simultaneously, contrary to long-held notions about how visual processing works.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur brain encodes visual information efficiently using circuits that are smartly designed. Contrary to what is taught in the classroom\u2014that color and form are processed separately in the early visual cortex and then integrated later by unknown mechanisms\u2014the brain encodes color and form together in a systematic way,\u201d says Peichao Li, co-first author and postdoctoral fellow in the Callaway lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last 20 years, I have wanted to know how the visual system processes color, so this finding is truly exciting for me,\u201d says Callaway, who holds the Vincent J. Coates Chair in Molecular Neurobiology. \u201cThis discovery lays a foundation for understanding how neural circuits make the computations that lead to color vision. We look forward to building on these findings to determine how the neurons in the visual cortex work together to extract colors and shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other authors included Mohammad S. Rashid of Salk.<\/p>\n

The work was funded by National Institutes of Health grants (EY022577, NS105129 and EY028084), the Gatsby Charitable Trust and the Pioneer Fund.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculty":[84],"disease-research":[124],"class_list":["post-23313","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","faculty-edward-callaway","disease-research-neuroscience-and-neurological-disorders"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDeciphering how the brain encodes color and shape - Salk Institute for Biological Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/zh\/news-release\/deciphering-how-the-brain-encodes-color-and-shape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deciphering how the brain encodes color and shape - Salk Institute for Biological Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LA JOLLA\u2014There are hundreds of thousands of distinct colors and shapes that a person can distinguish visually, but how does the brain process all of this information? 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