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R P Scobey

Publications and source records attributed to R P Scobey.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

A horizontal stripe of displacement sensitivity in the human visual field.

Displacement thresholds of peripheral sites in monocular human vision were obtained. The average of 12 directional thresholds at different visual field sites was used to define isometric lines of average displacement threshold about central vision. Isometric lines extended further into the temporal visual fields along the horizontal meridian than along other meridians. At any single site in the peripheral visual field the thresholds were not the same in all directions; they were larger toward and away from central vision. These two psychophysical findings vary in a qualitatively similar manner across the retinal field, as does the average size and the collected orientation bias of dendritic fields of retinal ganglion cells.

Fixation, Ocular

Orientation discrimination sensitivity of single units in cat primary visual cortex.

Responses of visual cortex (area 17) neurons to moving oriented stimuli were recorded from anesthetized cats. The variance of response (SD2) to repeated identical stimuli was directly proportional to response magnitude (R), (SD2 = C2R). The values of C were not found to differ significantly between different types of cortical cells. The relationship predicts that the coefficient of variation (SD/R) will be smallest near the peak of the tuning curve, indicating that the peak response is most reliable for detecting an orientation but not necessarily the most sensitive to a change in orientation. Tuning curves and response variability were then examined to determine the orientation at which the neuron was most sensitive to changes in stimulus orientation using signal detection theory. The discrimination index (d' = [R1-R2]/SD) for a 1 degree change in stimulus orientation was greatest along the flanks of the tuning curve. In order to generalize the experimental data, response distributions derived from a model of cells with parameters based on experimental data were examined to determine the minimal discriminable change in stimulus orientation. Changes of stimulus orientation between 0.6 and 5 deg of arc could be detected from single responses of a single cell by an optimal observer with 75% accuracy if the orientation change was centered at the most sensitive part of the tuning curve.

Action Potentials

Response covariance in cat visual cortex.

The activity of pairs of neurons in the visual cortex (area 17) of anaesthetized, paralysed cats was recorded using two independently manipulated micropipettes. The number of spikes in the evoked responses of pairs of single neurons were analyzed for response covariance. Responses of the majority of cell pairs (83%) did not covary. Covariance was restricted to closeby neurons with distances of less than 150 microns and with identical orientation and ocular dominance preference.

Analysis of Variance

Spatial limits of epileptogenic cortex: its relationship to ectopic spike generation.

In order to investigate if ectopic spike generation was ubiquitous in and specific generation was ubiquitous in and specific to epileptogenic cortex, a method was devised to determine the limits of such an area based on a well-accepted physiologic characteristic of epileptogenicity. The limits of the penicillin-induced epileptogenic cortex were defined in terms of a retinal activation field; this is a circumscribed area whose stimulation by light evokes a characteristic cortical epileptiform wave. All lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons manifesting ectopic spike generation during interictal epileptiform waves had receptive fields within the activation field. During organized seizures, ectopic spike generation was observed in neurons with receptive fields outside the activation field. Because of these findings it was concluded that ectopic spike generation is a characteristic and specific feature of epileptogenic cortex and that it is a characteristic of the epeleptogenic process rather than a peripheral event related entirely to the direct effect of penicillin on neurons.

Action Potentials