Biological variation in the sizes, shapes and locations of visual cortical areas in the mouse

PLoS One. 2019 May 1;14(5):e0213924. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213924. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Visual cortex is organized into discrete sub-regions or areas that are arranged into a hierarchy and serves different functions in the processing of visual information. In retinotopic maps of mouse cortex, there appear to be substantial mouse-to-mouse differences in visual area location, size and shape. Here we quantify the biological variation in the size, shape and locations of 11 visual areas in the mouse, after separating biological variation and measurement noise. We find that there is biological variation in the locations and sizes of visual areas.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain Mapping
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Visual Cortex / anatomy & histology*
  • Visual Cortex / physiology
  • Visual Pathways / physiology

Grants and funding

We wish to thank the Allen Institute founder, Paul G. Allen, for his vision, encouragement and support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.