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Science 4 January 1980:
Vol. 207. no. 4426, pp. 88 - 90
DOI: 10.1126/science.6765993
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Articles

Science, Vol 207, Issue 4426, 88-90
Copyright © 1980 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Visual cortical neurons: are bars or gratings the optimal stimuli?

DG Albrecht, RL De Valois, and LG Thorell

Neurons in the visual cortex of monkeys and cats have been characterized as either (i) bar and edge detectors or (ii) cells selective for certain spatial frequencies. To assess which of these functional descriptions is more accurate, we measured (i) the selectivity and (ii) the responsivity-sensitivity of these neurons to bars of various widths and gratings of various spatial frequencies. All of the cells recorded from were considerably more selective along the dimension of spatial frequency than along the dimension of bar width. Further, most were more responsive and sensitive to the grating of optimal frequency than to the bar of optimal width.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Robust Temporal Coding of Contrast by V1 Neurons for Transient But Not for Steady-State Stimuli.
F. Mechler, J. D. Victor, K. P. Purpura, and R. Shapley (1998)
J. Neurosci. 18, 6583-6598
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A processing stream in mammalian visual cortex neurons for non-Fourier responses.
Y. Zhou and C. Baker Jr (1993)
Science 261, 98-101
   Abstract »    PDF »
Receptive fields and the optimal stimulus.
D. Stork and J. Levinson (1982)
Science 216, 204-205
   PDF »
Receptive Fields and the Optimal Stimulus.
D. G. ALBRECHT, R. L. DE VALOIS, and L. G. THORELL (1982)
Science 216, 205
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Spatial frequency columns in primary visual cortex.
R. Tootell, M. Silverman, and R. De Valois (1981)
Science 214, 813-815
   Abstract »    PDF »


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