[Responses of squirrel visual cortex neurons to patterned visual stimuli].

Abstract

The responses of visual cortical neurons to patterned visual stimuli were studied in squirrel Sciurus vulgaris. The direction selective, orientation-selective and non-selective neurons were observed. Most direction-selective and non-selective neurons were sensitive to high speeds of stimulus movement--hundreds deg/s. The direction-selective neurons exhibited their selectivity at such high speeds in spite of the short time of the stimulus movement through the receptive field. Orientation-selective neurons (with simple or complex receptive fields) were sensitive to lower speeds of the stimulus movement (tens deg/s). Some mechanisms of the properties described are discussed.