Responses of cat's dorsal hippocampal neurones to moving visual stimuli

Abstract

Response properties of visually driven neurones in the cat's hippocampal region were investigated. Out of 688 single cells observed 181 (26%) were visually driven. Ocular dominance was determined for 147 of those cells, 90 of which were driven only by the contralateral eye, 20 were driven exclusively by ipsilateral eye and 37 neurones could be activated by both eyes. Receptive field boundaries were outlined for 157; 152 of those neurones were movement-sensitive, and 125 neurones were sensitive to stationary stimuli. A small group of neurones (13%) showed more pronounced reactions to the vertical direction of motion. Some neurones (22%) revealed sensitivity to the shape and size of the applied visual stimuli. These results confirmed earlier data indicating that visually driven neurones in hippocampal region possess complex properties. They are probably involved in a higher level of visual information processing.