Receptive field

About: Receptive field is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8537 publications have been published within this topic receiving 596428 citations.

Spatially opponent excitation and inhibition in simple cells of the cat visual cortex

Abstract: The receptive fields of simple cells in the cat visual cortex are, by definition, divided into ON and OFF subfields. There is little doubt that each subfield is generated by excitatory input from geniculate neurons of the appropriate center type: ON subfields by ON-center cells, and OFF subfields by OFF-center cells. In intracellular records, ON subfields can be detected as regions in which light elicits a barrage of EPSPs, while in OFF subfields, turning a light off does the same. In addition, visual stimuli can evoke strong IPSPs, but these IPSPs have a receptive field spatially opponent to that of the EPSPs: Inhibition is evoked by turning a light off in an ON region and turning a light on in an OFF region. This inhibition probably arises from other cortical simple cells, and may contribute to such receptive-field properties as antagonism between subfields, binocular disparity sensitivity, and orientation selectivity.

Cell structure and function in the visual cortex of the cat

Abstract: 1 The organization of the visual cortex was studied with a technique that allows one to determine the physiology and morphology of individual cells Micro-electrodes filled with the fluorescent dye Procion yellow were used to record intracellularly from cells in area 17 of the cat The visual receptive field of each neurone was classified as simple, complex, or hypercomplex, and the cell was then stained by the iontophoretic injection of dye 2 Fifty neurones were successfully examined in this way, and their structural features were compared to the varieties of cell types seen in Golgi preparations of area 17 The majority of simple units were stellate cells, whereas the majority of complex and hypercomplex units were pyramidal cells Several neurones belonged to less common morphological types, such as double bouquet cells Simple cells were concentrated in layer IV, hypercomplex cells in layer II + III, and complex cells in layers II + III, V and VI 3 Electrically inexcitable cells that had high resting potentials but no impulse activity were stained and identified as glial cells Glial cells responded to visual stimuli with slow graded depolarizations, and many of them showed a preference for a stimulus orientation similar to the optimal orientation for adjacent neurones 4 The results show that there is a clear, but not absolute correlation between the major structural and functional classes of cells in the visual cortex This approach, linking the physiological properties of a single cell to a given morphological type, will help in furthering our understanding of the cerebral cortex

New properties of rabbit retinal ganglion cells.

Abstract: 1. Receptive fields of centre surround cells in the rabbit retina were investigated. There is a clear distinction between cells with sluggish responses, low spontaneous activity and slow conduction velocity (centre surround sluggish cells) and cells with brisk responses, higher spontaneous activity and faster conduction velocity (X and Y cells). The sluggish cells can be divided into sustained and transient types. X and Y cells can be distinguished from each other by their responses to a moving linear grating, a large rapidly moving object and whether or not there is a response to the alternation of certain stimuli. Some times the response to a rotating radial grating, the rate of spontaneous activity, and whether or not the response to spots and annuli was sustained or transient could also be used to distinguish these two types. The antidromic latency from electrical stimulation of the optic chiasm and the periphery effect did not distinguish X from Y. 2. Eleven colour coded units were investigated. They all gave on responses to blue light in the centre of their receptive field and off responses to green light in the periphery of their receptive field. The blue pigment had a spectral sensitivity peaking at about 465 nm. The other pigment peaked near 500 nm, like the rods but gave a response at high mesopic and probably photopic levels. In some cases there was evidence for excitatory input from the green receptors to the centre of the receptive field. All the colour coded cells had rapidly conducting axons and were on centre X cells by all criteria. 3. Eighty-five cells various types other than colour coded were tested for their thresholds at 420 nm and 590 nm. In all cases the results were explained by a pigment peaking close to 500 nm, even at high mesopic and low photopic levels, which suggests the existence of cones with a cyan pigment in them. 4. Conduction latency from stimulation at the optic chiasm was measured for cells with centre surround receptive fields and cells with more complex receptive fields. Both 'on-off' and 'on' directionally sensitive cells have short conduction latencies, overlapping X and Y cells. Orientation selective cells and local edge detectors have long conduction latencies, overlapping centre surround sluggish cells. The sample of uniformity detectors was too small to characterize...

Functional connectivity between simple cells and complex cells in cat striate cortex

Abstract: In the cat primary visual cortex, neurons are classified into the two main categories of simple cells and complex cells based on their response properties. According to the hierarchical model, complex receptive fields derive from convergent inputs of simple cells with similar orientation preferences. This model received strong support from anatomical studies showing that many complex cells lie within the range of layer IV simple-cell axons but outside the range of most thalamic axons. Physiological evidence for the model, however, has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate that layer IV simple cells and layer II and III complex cells show correlated firing consistent with monosynaptic connections. As expected from the hierarchical model, all connections were in the direction from the simple cell to the complex cell, most frequently between cells with similar orientation preferences.