Abnormal visual field maps in human cortex: a mini-review and a case report - PubMed

Review

Abnormal visual field maps in human cortex: a mini-review and a case report

Koen V Haak et al. Cortex. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

Human visual cortex contains maps of the visual field. Much research has been dedicated to answering whether and when these visual field maps change if critical components of the visual circuitry are damaged. Here, we first provide a focused mini-review of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that have evaluated the human cortical visual field maps in the face of retinal lesions, brain injury, and atypical retinocortical projections. We find that there is a fair body of research that has found abnormal fMRI activity, but also that this abnormal activity does not necessarily stem from cortical remapping. The abnormal fMRI activity can often be explained in terms of task effects and/or the uncovering of normally hidden system dynamics. We then present the case of a 16-year-old patient who lost the entire left cerebral hemisphere at age three for treatment of chronic focal encephalitis (Rasmussen syndrome) and intractable epilepsy. Using an fMRI retinotopic mapping procedure and population receptive field (pRF) modeling, we found that (1) despite the long period since the hemispherectomy, the retinotopic organization of early visual cortex remained unaffected by the removal of an entire cerebral hemisphere, and (2) the intact lateral occipital cortex contained an exceptionally large representation of the center of the visual field. The same method also indicates that the neuronal receptive fields in these lateral occipital brain regions are extraordinarily small. These features are clearly abnormal, but again they do not necessarily stem from cortical remapping. For example, the abnormal features can also be explained by the notion that the hemispherectomy took place during a critical period in the development of the lateral occipital cortex and therefore arrested its normal development. Thus, caution should be exercised when interpreting abnormal fMRI activity as a marker of cortical remapping; there are often other explanations.

Keywords: Case report; Cortical reorganization; Hemispherectomy; Review; Visual field maps.

Comment in

• Explaining altered cerebral functioning following cerebral damage.

  Werth R. Werth R. Cortex. 2014 Jul;56:26-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.06.002. Epub 2013 Jun 18. Cortex. 2014. PMID: 23871307 No abstract available.

Similar articles

• Functional reorganization of population receptive fields in a hemispherectomy patient with blindsight.

  Georgy L, Jans B, Tamietto M, Ptito A. Georgy L, et al. Neuropsychologia. 2019 May;128:198-203. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.06.026. Epub 2018 Jun 30. Neuropsychologia. 2019. PMID: 29969591

• Retinotopy versus face selectivity in macaque visual cortex.

  Rajimehr R, Bilenko NY, Vanduffel W, Tootell RB. Rajimehr R, et al. J Cogn Neurosci. 2014 Dec;26(12):2691-700. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00672. Epub 2014 Jun 4. J Cogn Neurosci. 2014. PMID: 24893745

• Abnormal retinotopic representations in human visual cortex revealed by fMRI.

  Morland AB, Baseler HA, Hoffmann MB, Sharpe LT, Wandell BA. Morland AB, et al. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2001 Apr;107(1-3):229-47. doi: 10.1016/s0001-6918(01)00025-7. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2001. PMID: 11388137

• From cortical plasticity to unawareness of visual field defects.

  Safran AB, Landis T. Safran AB, et al. J Neuroophthalmol. 1999 Jun;19(2):84-8. J Neuroophthalmol. 1999. PMID: 10380128 Review.

• Cortical cartography revisited: A frequency perspective on the functional architecture of visual cortex.

  Basole A, Kreft-Kerekes V, White LE, Fitzpatrick D. Basole A, et al. Prog Brain Res. 2006;154:121-34. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6123(06)54006-3. Prog Brain Res. 2006. PMID: 17010706 Review.

Cited by

• Visual Field Reconstruction in Hemianopia Using fMRI Based Mapping Techniques.

  Halbertsma HN, Bridge H, Carvalho J, Cornelissen FW, Ajina S. Halbertsma HN, et al. Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Aug 10;15:713114. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.713114. eCollection 2021. Front Hum Neurosci. 2021. PMID: 34447301 Free PMC article.

• Visual Cortex Plasticity Following Peripheral Damage To The Visual System: fMRI Evidence.

  Lemos J, Pereira D, Castelo-Branco M. Lemos J, et al. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2016 Oct;16(10):89. doi: 10.1007/s11910-016-0691-0. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2016. PMID: 27542799 Review.

• Studying Cortical Plasticity in Ophthalmic and Neurological Disorders: From Stimulus-Driven to Cortical Circuitry Modeling Approaches.

  Carvalho J, Renken RJ, Cornelissen FW. Carvalho J, et al. Neural Plast. 2019 Nov 3;2019:2724101. doi: 10.1155/2019/2724101. eCollection 2019. Neural Plast. 2019. PMID: 31814821 Free PMC article. Review.

• Characterizing Visual Field Deficits in Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) Using Combined Diffusion Based Imaging and Functional Retinotopic Mapping: A Case Study.

  Merabet LB, Devaney KJ, Bauer CM, Panja A, Heidary G, Somers DC. Merabet LB, et al. Front Syst Neurosci. 2016 Feb 25;10:13. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2016.00013. eCollection 2016. Front Syst Neurosci. 2016. PMID: 26941619 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

• Homeostatic plasticity in human extrastriate cortex following a simulated peripheral scotoma.

  Gannon MA, Long SM, Parks NA. Gannon MA, et al. Exp Brain Res. 2017 Nov;235(11):3391-3401. doi: 10.1007/s00221-017-5042-0. Epub 2017 Aug 18. Exp Brain Res. 2017. PMID: 28821922

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Elsevier Science

• Other Literature Sources

  • scite Smart Citations