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Direction-sensitive X and Y cells within the A laminae of the cat's LGNd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Kirk G. Thompson ,
Yifeng Zhou  and
Audie G. Leventhal
Kirk G. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City
Yifeng Zhou
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China
Audie G. Leventhal
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City
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Abstract

Drifting sinusoidal gratings, moving bars, and moving spots were employed to study the direction sensitivity of 425 neurons in the A laminae of the cat's LGNd. Thirty-two percent of X- and Y-type LGNd relay cells exhibit significant direction sensitivity when tested with drifting sinusoidal gratings. X and Y cells exhibit the same degree of direction sensitivity. Moving spots and bars elicit direction specific responses from LGNd cells that are consistent with those elicited when drifting sinusoidal gratings are employed. For cells that are both orientation and direction sensitive, the preferred direction tends to be orthogonal to the preferred orientation. In general, direction sensitivity is strongest at relatively low spatial frequencies, well below the spatial-frequency cutoff for the cell. The presence of significant numbers of direction-sensitive LGNd cells raises the possibility that subcortical direction specificity is important for the generation of this property in the visual cortex.

Keywords

Lateral geniculate nucleusDirection sensitivityX and Y cells
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 11 , Issue 5 , September 1994 , pp. 927 - 938
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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