Micro-probing enables high-resolution mapping of neuronal subpopulations using fMRI

The characterization of receptive field (RF) properties is fundamental to understanding the neural basis of sensory and cognitive behaviour. The combination of non-invasive imaging, such as fMRI, with biologically inspired neural modeling has enabled the estimation of population RFs directly in humans. However, current approaches require making numerous a priori assumptions, so these cannot reveal unpredicted properties, such as fragmented RFs or subpopulations. This is a critical limitation in studies on adaptation, pathology or reorganization. Here, we introduce micro-probing (MP), a technique for fine-grained and assumption free characterisation of subpopulation RFs. Without specific stimuli or adapted models, MP mapped the bilateral RFs characteristic of observers with a congenital pathway disorder. Moreover, in healthy observers, MP revealed voxels that capture the activity of multiple neuronal subpopulations. Thus, MP provides a versatile framework to visualize, analyze and model, without restrictions, the diverse RFs of cortical subpopulations in health and disease.