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- Title
Fine structure of receptive-field centers of X and Y cells of the cat.
- Authors
Soodak, R. E.; Shapley, R. M.; Kaplan, E.
- Abstract
We investigated the fine structure of receptive field centers of X and Y cells of the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat using sinusoidal grating stimuli of high spatial frequency. By measuring orientation tuning and spatial-frequency tuning at multiple orientations, the two-dimensional sensitivity distribution was examined. We found that receptive-field centers typically have multiple sensitivity peaks that can be modeled as several spatially offset subunits. A subunit structure was found in both X and Y cells, with an average number of subunits per receptive-field center of approximately 2.9 in X cells and approximately 4.6 in Y cells. In X cells these subunits may correspond to individual cone bipolar inputs. In Y cells, the subunits may reflect the structure of the dendritic tree. The observation of the subunit structure of the receptive-field center, in conjunction with manipulation of the retinal wiring through pharmacological intervention, may provide a new tool for probing the circuitry of the retina.
- Publication
Visual Neuroscience, 1991, Vol 6, Issue 6, p621
- ISSN
0952-5238
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0952523800002613