Are simple striate cells analysers of visual signals both in spatial position as well as in spatial frequency?
According to a modern view, simple cells of the cat striate cortex are considered to operate as a part of Fourier analysis system thus leading to the idea that the operational mechanism of the visual cortex is concerned with the analysis of spatial frequencies. Nevertheless if simple cells are really concerned only with the analysis of spatial frequencies there should exist a strict relationship between their spatial frequency selectivity and the spatial organization of their receptive fields. This is because it is the spatial organization of the spatial frequency detector i.e. the cell's receptive field that determines the cell's spatial frequency selectivity. Since the quantitative analysis of the spatial organization of simple cell receptive fields has shown that the receptive fields of these cells are made up of two to four antagonistic subregions it follows that striate simple cells are concerned with the analysis of only a selected range of spatial frequencies. Therefore striate simple cells must be considered analysers of visual signals both in spatial frequencies as well as in spatial positions.
D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D009430:Neural Analyzers / Q000502:physiology; D011601:Psychophysics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields