Receptive Field Organization in Macaque vlPFC Neurons

Receptive Field Organization in Macaque vlPFC Neurons | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Receptive Field Organization in Macaque vlPFC Neurons Yasamin Abolfathi, Jalaledin Noroozi, Mohammad-Reza A. Dehaqani This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 17 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract While receptive fields (RFs) in ventral and dorsal visual areas are well characterized, their organization in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), a region involved in visual processing and cognition, remains largely unexplored. We examined the RFs of 132 vlPFC neurons in macaque monkeys to characterize their spatial response properties, using extracellular recordings with a high-resolution, unbiased random-dot paradigm during passive viewing. Analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity in RF structure, allowing neurons to be classified into three types: uniform, full-field, and nonuniform. More than 85% of neurons exhibited large RFs with multiple high-response regions spanning broad portions of peripheral visual space. These findings reveal the complex organization of vlPFC neurons and provide a foundation for understanding how this region supports flexible visual processing and cognitive computations. Biological sciences/Biological techniques Biological sciences/Neuroscience Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 24 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 17 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 13 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 03 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 03 Nov, 2025 Editor invited by journal 03 Nov, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 27 Oct, 2025 First submitted to journal 27 Oct, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7892322","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":539959666,"identity":"961a1954-a0cb-45d1-96da-09d4542b392e","order_by":0,"name":"Yasamin Abolfathi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yasamin","middleName":"","lastName":"Abolfathi","suffix":""},{"id":539959667,"identity":"c96a4e81-a0d9-4e12-9e60-df7ab967f5c9","order_by":1,"name":"Jalaledin Noroozi","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Sharif University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jalaledin","middleName":"","lastName":"Noroozi","suffix":""},{"id":539959668,"identity":"e47b3cc0-efee-42c6-9c84-a873873bbe35","order_by":2,"name":"Mohammad-Reza A. Dehaqani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohammad-Reza","middleName":"A.","lastName":"Dehaqani","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-18 09:08:26","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95229040,"identity":"dea3af95-ca7c-47f1-bee9-c0f18e1a1331","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:34:23","extension":"json","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":4532,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"df6b3d4276724d65a2229ca01b5c0783.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/90bdf312a107af133a3737ed.json"},{"id":95228936,"identity":"a4fac35a-03e3-4b00-b8a3-05655e59d3b2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:34:17","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":146851,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"CoverLScientificReports.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/5e7942b8ab3ae112fe2ff1b6.pdf"},{"id":95204505,"identity":"c9ed0138-82a5-4d59-8e04-631c1c663338","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 12:57:43","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":816151,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/4ee1a5c076c2909a3e05237e.jpeg"},{"id":95229037,"identity":"f62bf147-f97e-45df-be1f-fab83d14d7cd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:34:23","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":443526,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/f3bb62664d7b99ef6934d171.jpeg"},{"id":95204502,"identity":"2b8b5363-3163-401a-862d-426dd26a8605","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 12:57:43","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1085110,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fugure2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/f77c13abae82db59a408e8de.jpeg"},{"id":95227511,"identity":"8a2f7346-2eeb-4bee-bc02-9736eac26563","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:32:35","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":358311,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fugure3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/52bab0a22343b6d132d4061c.jpeg"},{"id":95227852,"identity":"c5e3aafc-139d-4f7e-997c-bf8ed04c328b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:33:01","extension":"pdf","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":21916,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"pointbypointresponse.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/07ea1a4bb9bd4b3189bf8972.pdf"},{"id":95204510,"identity":"8d0d5d4e-6639-46c2-8709-5841cb03fe31","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 12:57:43","extension":"pdf","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":2890782,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"scientificreport.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/c120113ce6a28b3ff1490141.pdf"},{"id":95204508,"identity":"623e361a-5ce3-4119-9825-98079f3e21a9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 12:57:43","extension":"xml","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":63135,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"df6b3d4276724d65a2229ca01b5c07831structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1/8bc925c6cb7fc41d5603d09a.xml"},{"id":95230655,"identity":"56ca2d7b-b047-497a-96d7-1f5733b2b494","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:38:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2934034,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"scientificreport.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7892322/v1_covered_52095145-70d5-40f5-b19c-a302064dda28.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Receptive Field Organization in Macaque vlPFC Neurons","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"While receptive fields (RFs) in ventral and dorsal visual areas are well characterized, their organization in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), a region involved in visual processing and cognition, remains largely unexplored. We examined the RFs of 132 vlPFC neurons in macaque monkeys to characterize their spatial response properties, using extracellular recordings with a high-resolution, unbiased random-dot paradigm during passive viewing. Analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity in RF structure, allowing neurons to be classified into three types: uniform, full-field, and nonuniform. More than 85\\% of neurons exhibited large RFs with multiple high-response regions spanning broad portions of peripheral visual space. These findings reveal the complex organization of vlPFC neurons and provide a foundation for understanding how this region supports flexible visual processing and cognitive computations.","manuscriptTitle":"Receptive Field Organization in Macaque vlPFC Neurons","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-05 12:57:38","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892322/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-11-24T09:56:31+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-20T12:39:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-17T21:51:10+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-13T17:30:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"36594956771601816287191582213355709009","date":"2025-11-12T15:50:08+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"40366757208249006853443814771803382072","date":"2025-11-10T11:15:11+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"318926262588441669447289654664147147944","date":"2025-11-10T06:04:09+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"61403447281228051829034175246539519509","date":"2025-11-10T00:02:28+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"72299764013885767549065016010679033391","date":"2025-11-04T16:33:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"247153825931148145897563146815353065168","date":"2025-11-04T08:42:17+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"210957550549980983872583906571101346259","date":"2025-11-03T21:51:23+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"107307785393421096115773721721413839721","date":"2025-11-03T21:30:10+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-11-03T21:26:27+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-11-03T21:00:28+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-11-03T17:55:07+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-10-27T19:17:27+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Scientific Reports","date":"2025-10-27T19:14:55+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"a9efb8f9-b602-43b0-ae73-7b9958714539","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 5th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"in-revision","subjectAreas":[{"id":57435554,"name":"Biological sciences/Biological techniques"},{"id":57435555,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-24T10:08:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-05 12:57:38","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7892322","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7892322","identity":"rs-7892322","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}