Functional segregation of plural regions representing cardinal contours in cat primary visual cortex

Our previous data based on an imaging study suggested that, in cat area 17, the representations of cardinal orientations overlap less than the representation of their nearby angles. The purpose of this study was to further investigate the underlying single‐cell properties. Optical imaging was performed first to map the cortical regions corresponding to the four principal contours, the two cardinals and the two obliques. The cortical region activated by a principal orientation but not by the +10° or −10° neighbouring angles, namely the area with optically relative independent orientation selectivity (RIOS), was mapped together with the regions that overlapped with the +10° and/or −10° neighbouring angles (non‐RIOS). Electrode penetrations were targeted to the RIOS and non‐RIOS regions in each of the four orientations. A comparison between the RIOS and the non‐RIOS regions documented a significantly higher percentage of cells with the orientation preference of the cardinal orientations in the cardinal RIOS region than that seen in the other regions. Additionally, the difference in the tuning width of cells between the RIOS and non‐RIOS in the cardinal region was significantly larger than the difference between the RIOS and non‐RIOS in the oblique region. The cells in the cardinal RIOS region were tuned more sharply and the cells in cardinal non‐RIOS region more broadly than the oblique RIOS and/or the non‐RIOS region, which showed no significant difference. These data strongly suggest the existence of functional segregation in the region corresponding to the cardinal contours.

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