Receptive-field characteristics of single neurons in lateral suprasylvian visual area of the cat.
The visual receptive fields of 213 cells in the lateral suprasylvian visual cortex (LS, or Clare-Bishop area) were studied in cats anesthetized with nitrous oxide. Eighty-one percent of the cells were directionally selective. They responded poorly to stationary stimuli flashed on or off, but gave a directionally selective response to stimuli moving through the receptive field. Most of these had a single preferred direction and an opposite null direction. They typically responded to a range of directions of stimulus movement from 45 to 90 degrees to either side of the preferred direction. Small stimuli (1-2 degrees or smaller) typically were effective and 87% of the directionally selective cells showed spatial summation. About 32% had inhibitory mechanisms which decreased the response of the cell if the stimulus exceeded a maximum size. There was little or no evidence that LS area cells were orientation selective or sensitive to variations in stimulus shape independent of size.
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000502:physiology*; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*