Texture-dependent motion signals in primate middle temporal area

•  The receptive fields of neurons in the middle temporal (MT) area of primate visual cortex are an important stage in motion analysis. Some neurons in MT (pattern cells) can signal motion independent of contour orientation, but others (component cells) cannot; there is no systematic account of how responses in area MT depend on the spatial structure of images. •  We measured the extracellular response of neurons in area MT of anaesthetised marmoset monkeys to synthetic textures and natural images. •  Direction tuning of pattern cells was broad and largely stable against variation in spatial texture. Direction tuning of component cells was narrower than that of pattern cells when spatial textures contained few orientations, but tuning was not stable against variation in spatial texture. •  Response variability in all neurons was lower for rich spatial texture. •  Pattern and component cells may provide parallel analyses for motion vision.