Abstract
A better understanding of the function of sensory neurons has been achieved in the last decade by the determination of the stimulus parameters which are critical for triggering these neurons. Numerous experiments, following the pioneering studies by Hubel and Wiesel (10, 11) have clearly demonstrated that the neurons in the primary visual cortex of the cat (and of the monkey) are preferentially activated by rather complex visual stimuli, usually edges, slits or bars of particular and precise orientation, moving across their receptive field. The orientation of the edge which maximally activates each neuron is different from one cell to the next, but every orientation is equally represented. The majority of these neurons are binocularly driven, but are differentially influenced by the two eyes (2, 11, 16, 17).
This work was supported by grants from the CNRS (RCP 348) and the INSERM (ATP6-74-27) and a contract of the DGRST (no 74-7-800).
Miss Paulette Saillour rendered valuable technical assistance.
Most of the results of these experiments have been published in detail elsewhere (5,15) in collaboration with P. Buisseret.
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© 1977 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Imbert, M. (1977). Developmental Plasticity in the Visual Cortex. In: Berenberg, S.R. (eds) Brain. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8884-5_7
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