The spatial selectivity of the visual cells of the cat
- 1 July 1969
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal Of Physiology-London
- Vol. 203 (1), 223-235
- https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008861
Abstract
1. Micro-electrode recordings have been made from single units in the visual cortex of the cat, during stimulation by moving grating patterns generated on a cathode ray tube.2. The responses of the units have been measured in terms of either the frequency of impulses, or the contrast sensitivity, and expressed as a function of the spatial frequency of the grating pattern.3. The amplitude of the responses recorded from cortical cell bodies was dependent upon the orientation of the moving grating, and for these units the stimulus was always presented at the preferred orientation. The response amplitude of other units did not depend upon the orientation of the grating stimulus, and these are believed to be the terminations of geniculate fibres.4. The high spatial frequency end of the response function measured in terms of the contrast sensitivity could be well fitted by an exponential function. Subtraction of the blank count from the impulse frequency data gave a curve fitted by the same exponential function. The low frequency end was less consistent.5. The spatial frequency at which this exponential function had fallen by one log. unit was taken to specify the position of the unit's response in the spatial frequency spectrum. For all units these values cover a range of four octaves of spatial frequency (from 0.18 to 3.8 cycles per degree).6. It is suggested that these neurophysiological results support psychophysical evidence for the existence in the visual system of channels, each selectively sensitive to a narrow band of spatial frequencies.This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- On the existence of neurones in the human visual system selectively sensitive to the orientation and size of retinal imagesJournal Of Physiology-London, 1969
- Three factors limiting the reliable detection of light by retinal ganglion cells of the catJournal Of Physiology-London, 1969
- The angular selectivity of visual cortical cells to moving gratingsJournal Of Physiology-London, 1968
- Application of fourier analysis to the visibility of gratingsJournal Of Physiology-London, 1968
- Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortexJournal Of Physiology-London, 1968
- The contrast sensitivity of retinal ganglion cells of the catThe Journal of Physiology, 1966
- RECEPTIVE FIELDS AND FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN TWO NONSTRIATE VISUAL AREAS (18 AND 19) OF THE CATJournal of Neurophysiology, 1965
- Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortexJournal Of Physiology-London, 1962
- Receptive fields of ganglion cells in the cat's retinaJournal Of Physiology-London, 1960
- DISCHARGE PATTERNS AND FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MAMMALIAN RETINAJournal of Neurophysiology, 1953