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Spatial and temporal visual properties of single neurons in the feline anterior ectosylvian visual area

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Abstract

The spatial and temporal visual sensitivity to drifting sinusoidal gratings was studied in 75 neurons of the feline anterior ectosylvian visual area (AEV). Extracellular single-unit recordings were performed in halothane-anesthetized (0.6%), immobilized, artificially ventilated cats. Most cells were strongly sensitive to the direction of drifting gratings. The mean value of the direction tuning widths was approximately 90 deg. Most of the cells (69 of the 75 cases) displayed rather narrowly tuned band-pass characteristics in the low spatial frequency range, with a mean optimal spatial frequency of 0.2 cycles/degree (c/deg). The mean spatial bandwidth was 1.4 octaves. The remainder of the units was low-pass tuned. A majority of the units responded optimally to high temporal frequencies (mean 6.3 Hz), although some cells did exhibit preferences for every examined temporal frequency between 0.6 Hz and 10.8 Hz. The temporal frequency-tuning functions mostly revealed a band-pass character with a mean temporal bandwidth of 1.1 octaves. Our results demonstrate that the neurons along the anterior ectosylvian sulcus display particular spatial and temporal characteristics. The AEV neurons, with their preference for low spatial frequencies and with their fine spatial and temporal tuning properties, seem to be candidates for special tasks in motion perception.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Gabriella Dósai and Kálmán Hermann for their valuable technical assistance, Peter Liszli for his expert help and Zita Márkus and Alice Roxine for their help in data collection. This work was supported by OTKA/Hungary 29817, OTKA/Hungary T042610 and FKFP/Hungary 0455/2000 grants.

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Correspondence to György Benedek.

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Nagy, A., Eördegh, G. & Benedek, G. Spatial and temporal visual properties of single neurons in the feline anterior ectosylvian visual area. Exp Brain Res 151, 108–114 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1488-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1488-3

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