Himmelberg, M. M.; Kwak, Y. M.; Carrasco, M.; Winawer, J.

A comprehensive description of the organizational principles of human primary visual cortex (V1) requires an understanding of how V1 neural properties covary across the cortical map. We used fMRI to quantify V1 preferred spatial frequency and cortical magnification as a function of both eccentricity and polar angle, and across individual observers (n=40). We found that the two measurements: (1) declined proportionally with eccentricity; (2) covaried systematically with polar angle, but with variation in cortical magnification double that of preferred spatial frequency; and (3) covaried across individuals. These data reveal a link between V1 preferred spatial frequency and cortical magnification within observers -as a function of visual field location- and between observers -when summed over visual field location. These results suggest that to a large degree, these two measurements of cortex develop in a coordinated manner, consistent with the hypothesis of a canonical cortical circuit.