The effect of horizontal‐plane environment on the development of binocular receptive fields of cells in cat visual cortex

Abstract

SUMMARY1. The different perception of vertical in the two eyes (Helmholtz, 1864) was interpreted as an adaptation of cortical binocular receptive fields to the bias distribution of orientation disparity in the visual environment resulting from the relative frequency of contours in horizontal planes below eye level (ground, table) compared to other orientations in space.2. Kittens were reared in environments where visible contours were confined to a horizontal plane which was the floor for two kittens and the ceiling for two other kittens. The floor tended to produce negative, the ceiling positive, orientation disparities. In either case, the disparities were maximal about the vertical retinal meridians and zero at the horizontal meridian. The preferred stimulus orientations of binocular neurones in area 17 of the visual cortex were determined at 3-4 months age in these four kittens and in seven normal cats for control. Automatic stimulus variation, quantitative analysis, and eye drift correction were used.3. In the 'floor cats' neurones with near-vertical orientations showed a mean interocular angle between the preferred orientations of -8.70 relative to neurones with near-horizontal orientations; in the 'ceiling cats', the angle was + 2.8°; in the normal cats it was -0.40. 4. Since these angles are independent of the alignment of the eyes, the difference between floor cats and ceiling cats reflects different functional connexions at cortical level. This indicates that the orientations of the developing receptive fields can be modified by visual experience.5. These observations in kittens suggest that the perceptual difference between the eyes in man is also caused by early visual experience.

Short-latency disparity-vergence eye movements in humans: sensitivity to simulated orthogonal tropias

“…Though only one of our subjects had a sustained manifest tropia sufficient to put her in the clinical range, we feel that her data clearly indicate an important additional characteristic of this system-its adaptive capability-that nicely complements the clinical literature on anomalous retinal correspondence. As to whether her tropia is an adaptive response to miswired binocular visual connections or vice versa is not clear, though it is known from animal studies that optically or surgically induced binocular misalignments imposed early in development can result in the appearance of some neurons with binocular connections that are appropriate for the abnormal binocular visual input (Bruce, Isley & Shinkman, 1981;Dursteler & von der Heydt, 1983;Grant & Berman, 1991;Hanny & von der Heydt, 1982;Shinkman, Isley & Rogers, 1983;Shlaer, 1971). Initial horizontal vergence responses to 2° crossed disparity stimuli (mean temporal profiles): dependence on left-hyper disparity (sample data, subject FM).…”

Squint‐induced Modification of Visual Receptive Field in the Lateral Suprasylvian Cortex of the Cat: Binocul Interaction, Vertical Effect and Anomalous Correspondence

“…Such a mechanism of selective stabilization is more likely to occur in extrastriate visual areas, where retinotopy is again coarse and the receptive fields are large. However, the partial compensation for rotational disparity or vertical misalignment of the eyes reported in the literature for cells in area 17 (Shlaer, 1971; Bruce et af., 1981; Haenny and Von der Heydt, 1982;Diirsteler and Von der Heydt, 1983) suggests that, in principle, a similar mechanism might operate at different levels in the visual system. It is only the magnitude of compensation that differs from one area to the next.…”

Plasticity in the binocular correspondence of striate cortical receptive fields in kittens.

“…The dot display, which showed the response to each stimulus sweep at the various orientations ( Fig. 3 in Hanny & von der Heydt, 1982), served to control and improve the receptive field map.…”