Heritable functional architecture in human visual cortex
Ivan Alvarez,
Nonie J. Finlayson,
Shwe Ei,
Benjamin de Haas,
John A. Greenwood,
D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
Affiliations
Ivan Alvarez
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Nonie J. Finlayson
Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; Ipsos, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Shwe Ei
Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; GKT School of Medical Education, Kings College London, United Kingdom
Benjamin de Haas
Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
John A. Greenwood
Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom
D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand; Corresponding author at: School of Optometry & Vision Science, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
How much of the functional organization of our visual system is inherited? Here we tested the heritability of retinotopic maps in human visual cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrate that retinotopic organization shows a closer correspondence in monozygotic (MZ) compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, suggesting a partial genetic determination. Using population receptive field (pRF) analysis to examine the preferred spatial location and selectivity of these neuronal populations, we estimate a heritability around 10–20% for polar angle preferences and spatial selectivity, as quantified by pRF size, in extrastriate areas V2 and V3. Our findings are consistent with heritability in both the macroscopic arrangement of visual regions and stimulus tuning properties of visual cortex. This could constitute a neural substrate for variations in a range of perceptual effects, which themselves have been found to be at least partially genetically determined. These findings also add convergent evidence for the hypothesis that functional map topology is linked with cortical morphology.
