Neural correlates of motion after-effects in cat striate cortical neurones: monocular adaptation

Summary

Motion after-effects were elicited from striate cortical cells in lightly-anaesthetized cats, by adapting with square-wave gratings or randomly textured fields drifting steadily and continuously in preferred or null directions. The time-course and recovery of responsiveness following adaptation were assessed with moving bars, gratings or textured fields. Results were compared with controls in which the adapting stimulus was replaced by a uniform field of identical mean luminance, and also assessed in relation to the strength and time course of adaptation. Within 30–60 s adaptation, firing declined to a steady-state. Induced after-effects were direction-specific, and manifest as a transitory depression in response to the direction of prior adaptation, recovering to control levels in 30–60 s. Maximal after effects were induced by gratings of optimal drift velocity and spatial frequency. With rare exceptions after-effects were restricted to driven activity; no consistent effects on resting discharge were observed. The onset of adaptation, and the recovery period, were more rapid in simple cells, although after effects of comparable strength were elicited from simple and from standard complex cells. Special complex cells, including many of the more profoundly texture-sensitive neurones in the cortex, were more resistant to adaptation. The results support the conclusion that psychophysically measured adaptation and induced motion after-effect phenomena reflect the known properties of cortical neurones.