Extents of visual, auditory and bimodal receptive fields of single neurons in the feline visual associative cortex

Nagy, A. and Eördegh, Gabriella and Benedek, G. (2003) Extents of visual, auditory and bimodal receptive fields of single neurons in the feline visual associative cortex. Acta Physiologica Hungarica, 90 (4). pp. 305-312. ISSN 0231-424X

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Abstract

Extracellular microelectrode recordings were carried out on 150 neurons in the anterior ectosylvian sulcal region of halothane-anesthetized, immobilized, artificially ventilated cats. Fifty-nine neurons were visual, 60 were auditory and 31 were bimodal visual-auditory. As the extent of the receptive fields has never been exactly determined, we introduced a quasi-objective, computer-based, statistical method in order to estimate the receptive field sizes in the anterior half of the perimeter. The visual, auditory and bimodal cells had very large receptive fields, often with portions extending well into the ipsilateral hemifield. The mean extents of the visual and auditory receptive fields in the horizontal plane were 75.75° (N=59, SD: ±28.62°, range: 15-135°), and 132.5° (N=60, SD: ±46.72°, range: 15-165°) respectively. These data suggest that a single visual neuron can carry information from the whole visual field of the right eye and a single auditory unit can carry information of azimuths throughout the whole area of the horizontal plane studied. The mean extent of the bimodal receptive fields in the horizontal plane was 82.1° (N=31, SD: ±24.24°, range: 30-135°). In 21 of the 31 bimodal cells we observed a facilitatory interaction between visual and auditory stimuli. The mean extent of the facilitatory interactions in these cells was 75.75° (N=21, SD: ±24.56°, range: 45-135°).

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