Receptive Fields in Single Cells of Monkey Visual Cortex During Visual Tracking

Abstract

Monkeys were trained to visually track a moving target. During tracking, receptive fields in the primary visual cortex were explored with a stimulus fixed to a screen so that its image swept across the retina but not across the visual world. The same cells were also explored with stimuli which presented both “absolute” motion (across the retina) and “relative” motion (across the background); 39 % of the cells responded only to relative motion, and another 39 % responded to both absolute and relative motion. This response pattern can differentiate translation of the retinal image during eye movement from motion of objects in the world. A similar result was obtained with another method. The monkey has no receptive fields which respond to stimuli in a given region of the visual world regardless of eye position.