The detection of movement direction and effects of contrast reversal in the cat's striate cortex

Abstract Single cell responses to moving visual stimuli have been recorded in the striate cortex of anaesthetized and immobilized cats, and the effects of the reversal of stimulus contrast have been tested. The detection of the direction of movement of a light stimulus in the cat's striate cortex depends to a certain extent on the receptive field type and—in cells having simple receptive fields—also somewhat on the eccentricity in receptive field location. In a high proportion of striate cells a reversal in stimulus contrast either changes the degree of the direction sensitivity or even reverses the preferred direction. The effects of the contrast reversal are much stronger in simple than in complex cells. Susceptibility to contrast reversal is observed mainly in directional asymmetric and bidirectional cells; the responses of the majority of unidirectional cells remain stable under contrast reversals. These latter cells are therefore the directional selective cells and they comprise about 25% of the total striate cell population.

[1]  H. Barlow,et al.  The mechanism of directionally selective units in rabbit's retina. , 1965, The Journal of physiology.

[2]  K. Albus.  A quantitative study of the projection area of the central and the paracentral visual field in area 17 of the cat , 1975, Experimental brain research.

[3]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex , 1968, The Journal of physiology.

[4]  G. Henry,et al.  Direction selectivity of complex cells in a comparison with simple cells. , 1975, Journal of neurophysiology.

[5]  P. O. Bishop,et al.  Direction selectivity of simple striate cells: properties and mechanism. , 1975, Journal of neurophysiology.

[6]  C. Gilbert.  Laminar differences in receptive field properties of cells in cat primary visual cortex , 1977, The Journal of physiology.

[7]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex , 1962, The Journal of physiology.

[8]  P. Schiller,et al.  Quantitative studies of single-cell properties in monkey striate cortex. I. Spatiotemporal organization of receptive fields. , 1976, Journal of neurophysiology.

[9]  G. Henry.  Receptive field classes of cells in the striate cortex of the cat , 1977, Brain Research.

[10]  K. Albus,et al.  Static and dynamic properties of receptive fields of some simple cells in cat's striate cortex , 1976, Vision Research.

[11]  R. C. Emerson,et al.  Simple striate neurons in the cat. II. Mechanisms underlying directional asymmetry and directional selectivity. , 1977, Journal of neurophysiology.

[12]  P. O. Bishop,et al.  Responses to visual contours: spatio‐temporal aspects of excitation in the receptive fields of simple striate neurones , 1971, The Journal of physiology.