Effects of early experience upon orientation sensitivity and binocularity of neurons in visual cortex of cats

Abstract

The class of neurons within the visual cortex of normal adult cats that has the smallest receptive fields (≤2.25 degrees) and that responds only to low rates of stimulus motion (≤50°/sec) responds preferentially to lines oriented about either the horizontal axis (±22.5°) or the vertical axis (±22.5°). In animals reared without exposure to patterned visual stimulation, many of these cells display orientation preferences but are activated monocularly. In contrast, in normal animals, neurons that have larger receptive fields or that respond to higher rates of stimulus motion do not exhibit a similar bias in the distribution of their orientation preferences. Cells of this type, studied in animals reared without exposure to patterned visual stimuli, are activated binocularly but do not display orientation preferences.