Segregation of short-wavelength sensitive (“blue”) cone signals among neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus and striate cortex of marmosets

We measured functional input from short-wavelength selective (S) cones to neurons in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and striate cortex (area V1) in anaesthetized marmosets. We found that most magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) cells receive very little (<5%) functional input from S cones, whereas blue-on cells of the koniocellular (KC) pathway receive dominant input from S cones. Cells dominated by S cone input were not encountered in V1, but V1 cells received more S cone input than PC or MC cells. This suggests that S cone inputs are distributed broadly among neurons in V1. No differences in strength of S cone inputs were seen on comparing dichromatic and trichromatic marmosets, suggesting that the addition of a medium-long wavelength selective cone-opponent (“red–green”) channel to a dichromatic visual system does not detectably affect the chromatic properties of the S cone pathways.