Second and third visual areas of the cat: interindividual variability in retinotopic arrangement and cortical location.

1. The cortical location and the retinotopic arrangement of the second (V2) and third (V3) visual areas in the cat have been investigated with single and multiple unit recordings in anaesthetized and immobilized animals.2. V2 and V3 are arranged side by side anterior and medial to V1 and occupy the lateral gyrus and the postlateral sulcus. In addition, V2 spreads to postlateral parts of the lateral sulcus and, occasionally, to the posterior suprasylvian gyrus. The contralateral lower hemifield is represented on the lateral gyrus, the area centralis and the horizontal meridian are found in most animals in the anterior part of the postlateral sulcus, and the representation of the upper hemifield occupies the posterior part of the postlateral sulcus.3. The detailed retinotopic arrangement of the visual field maps shows two characteristic features. First, the retinotopy at the V2/V3 border differs between lower and upper hemifield. In the lower hemifield the periphery of the fields is represented, whereas in the upper hemifield the border between the representations is formed by a sector running along the horizontal meridian about 5-10 degrees in the upper hemifield. Thus the lower field arrangement resembles that of rodents, and the upper field arrangement is similar to that of primates. Secondly, the periphery of a part of the visual field is not continuously represented, but forms patches or islands (Donaldson & Whitteridge, 1977). The islands are bounded by visual field representations closer to the vertical meridian. The way the visual field is represented at the border between V2 and V3 introduces discontinuities into the visual field maps: adjacent parts of the visual field are not represented adjacently in these two prestriate areas.4. Cortical location and detailed retinotopic arrangement vary considerably from animal to animal, so that a representative map of V2 and V3 cannot be constructed. For example, the representation of the periphery of the horizontal meridian may be located either in the anterior portion of the postlateral sulcus or some mm more posteriorly, where the sulcus turns laterally. The representation of the area centralis in V3 is found either at the transition zone between lateral and postlateral sulcus, on the posterior suprasylvian gyrus, or in the posterior part of the postlateral sulcus.5. The entire hemifield is represented in V2 at least in some animals. In V3 the uppermost part of the vertical meridian seems not to be represented. In other animals only a restricted part of the contralateral visual field is represented in V2 or in V3. In these cases the receptive fields cover not more than 50 degrees out in the lower hemifield or on the horizontal meridian. In a few cases the periphery of the horizontal meridian and the upper hemifield are not at all represented in V3, or only in an incomplete manner.6. The magnification factors (Daniel & Whitteridge, 1961) become progressively smaller from V1 to V2 to V3. Hence cortical volume occupied decreases from V1 to V3. In V1 and in V2 the magnification is highest along the lower vertical meridian. In V2 the magnification along the horizontal meridian is the smallest, whereas in V1 the magnification decreases progressively from the lower vertical, to the horizontal and to the upper vertical meridian. The relationship between retinal ganglion cell densities and cortical magnification factors is discussed.