Skip to main content
Log in

Organization of neurones preferring similar spatial frequencies in cat striate cortex

  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

The optimal spatial frequencies were determined for over 300 neurones in cat striate cortex. Neurones recorded within about 100 urn were more likely to have similar optimal spatial frequencies than were neurones recorded at greater separations. But, even neurones recorded close together sometimes differed markedly in their optima; these differences could not be attributed to differences in receptive field eccentricity. When one lamina was sampled more than once, on different electrode penetrations, the different samples of neurones did not often have similar optimal spatial frequencies. To investigate whether neurones in laminae or in columns prefer the same spatial frequencies, data from normal and oblique penetrations were compared. Little difference in the degree of organization was seen in the two kinds of penetrations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albus K (1975a) A quantitative study of the projection area of the central and the paracentral visual field in area 17 of the cat: the precision of topography. Exp Brain Res 24: 159–179

    Google Scholar 

  • Albus K (1975b) A quantitative study of the projection area of the central and paracentral visual field in area 17 of the cat: the spatial organization in the orientation domain. Exp Brain Res 24: 181–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Albus K (1979) 14C-Deoxyglucose mapping of orientation subunits in the cat's visual cortical areas. Exp Brain Res 37: 609–613

    Google Scholar 

  • Barlow HB, Blakemore C, Pettigrew JD (1967) The neural mechanism of binocular depth perception. J Physiol (Lond) 193: 327–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer R, Dow BM, Vautin RG (1980) Laminar distribution of preferred orientations in foveal striate cortex of the monkey. Exp Brain Res 41: 54–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Berardi N, Bisti S, Cattaneo A, Fiorentini A, Maffei L (1982) Correlation between the preferred orientation and spatial frequency of neurones in visual areas 17 and 18 of the cat. J Physiol (Lond) 323: 603–618

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell FW, Cooper GF, Enroth-Cugell C (1969) The spatial selectivity of visual cells of the cat. J Physiol (Lond) 203: 223–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert CD (1977) Laminar differences in receptive field properties of cells in cat primary visual cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 268: 391–421

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg AP (1978) Visual information processing based on spatial filters constrained by biological data. Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory-Technical Review, vol I and II

  • Glezer VD, Ivanoff VA, Tscherbach TA (1973) Investigation of complex and hypercomplex receptive fields of visual cortex of the cat as spatial frequency filters. Vision Res 13: 1875–1904

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham N, Robson JG, Nachmias J (1978) Grating summation in fovea and periphery. Vision Res 18: 815–825

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1962) Receptive fields, binocular interaction, and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 160: 106–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1963) Shape and arrangement of columns in cat striate cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 165: 559–568

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1974) Sequence regularity and geometry of orientation columns in the monkey striate cortex. J Comp Neurol 158: 267–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikeda H, Wright MJ (1975) Retinotopic distribution, visual latency and orientation tuning of “sustained” and “transient” cortical neurones in area 17 of the cat. Exp Brain Res 22: 385–398

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee BB, Albus K, Heggelund P, Hulme MJ, Creutzfeldt OD (1977) The depth distribution of optimal Stimulus orientations for neurones in cat Area 17. Exp Brain Res 27: 301–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Limb JO, Rubinstein CB (1977) A model of threshold vision incorporated inhomogeneity of the visual field. Vision Res 17: 571–584

    Google Scholar 

  • Maffei L, Fiorentini A (1973) The visual cortex as a spatial frequency analyser. Vision Res 13: 1255–1267

    Google Scholar 

  • Maffei L, Fiorentini A (1977) Spatial frequency rows in the striate visual cortex. Vision Res 17: 257–264

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrill EG, Ainsworth A (1972) Glass-coated platinum-plated tungsten microelectrodes. Med Biol Eng Comput 10: 662–672

    Google Scholar 

  • Movshon JA, Thompson ID, Tolhurst DJ (1978a) Spatial summation in the receptive fields of simple cells in the cat's striate cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 283: 53–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Movshon JA, Thompson ID, Tolhurst DJ (1978b) Spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity of neurones in areas 17 and 18 of the cat's visual cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 283: 101–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne BR, Berman N, Murphy EH (1981) Organization of direction preferences in cat visual cortex. Brain Res 211: 445–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollen DA, Taylor JH (1974) The striate cortex and the spatial analysis of visual space. In: Schmitt FO, Worden FG (eds) The neurosciences, third study program. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 239–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Robson JG (1975) Receptive fields: spatial and intensive representations of the visual image. In: Carterette D, Friedman W (eds) Handbook of perception, vol V. Academic Press, New York, pp 81–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoppmann A, Stryker MP (1981) Physiological evidence that the 2-deoxyglucose method reveals orientation columns in cat visual cortex. Nature 293: 574–576

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp FR (1976) Relative cerebral glucose uptake of neuronal perikarya and neuropil determined with 2-deoxyglucose in resting and swimming rat. Brain Res 110: 127–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp FR, Kauer JS, Shepherd GM (1977) Laminar analysis of 2-deoxyglucose uptake in olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex of rabbit and rat. J Neurophysiol 40: 800–813

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel S (1956) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. McGraw-Hill/Kogakusha, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman MS, Tootell RB, DeValois RL (1980) Deoxyglucose mapping of orientation and spatial frequency in cat visual cortex. Invest Ophthalmol [Suppl] 19: 225

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman MS, Tootell RB, DeValois RL (1981) Deoxyglucose mapping of spatial frequency/orientation modules in cat striate cortex. Invest Ophthalmol [Suppl] 20: 186

    Google Scholar 

  • Stryker MP, Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1977) Orientation columns in the cat's visual cortex. Neurosci Abstr 3: 1852

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson ID, Tolhurst DJ (1980a) Optimal spatial frequencies of neighbouring neurones in the cat's visual cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 300: 57–58P

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson ID, Tolhurst DJ (1980b) The representation of spatial frequency in cat visual cortex: a 14C-2-deoxyglucose study. J Physiol (Lond) 300: 58–59P

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson ID, Tolhurst DJ (1981) Columnar organization for optimal spatial frequency in cat striate cortex. J Physiol (Lond) 319: 79P

  • Tolhurst DJ, Dean AF, Thompson ID (1981) Preferred direction of movement as an element in the organization of cat visual cortex. Exp Brain Res 44: 340–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolhurst DJ, Thompson ID (1981) On the variety of spatial frequency selectivities shown by neurones in area 17 of the cat. Proc R Soc Lond [Biol] 213: 183–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Tootell RB, Silverman MS, De Valois RL (1981) Spatial frequency columns in primary visual cortex. Science, NY 214: 813–815

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

Supported by a Medical Research Council project grant to DJT. IDT was supported initially by the MRC but, during the preparation of the manuscript, was supported by St. John's College, Oxford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tolhurst, D.J., Thompson, I.D. Organization of neurones preferring similar spatial frequencies in cat striate cortex. Exp Brain Res 48, 217–227 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237217

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237217

Key words

Navigation