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Fine structure of receptive-field centers of X and Y cells of the cat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

R. E. Soodak ,
R. M. Shapley  and
E. Kaplan
R. E. Soodak
Affiliation:
The RockefellerUniversity, New York
R. M. Shapley
Affiliation:
Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York
E. Kaplan
Affiliation:
The RockefellerUniversity, New York
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Abstract

We investigated the fine structure of receptive field centers of X and Y cells of the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat using sinusoidal grating stimuli of high spatial frequency. By measuring orientation tuning and spatial-frequency tuning at multiple orientations, the two-dimensional sensitivity distribution was examined. We found that receptive-field centers typically have multiple sensitivity peaks that can be modeled as several spatially offset subunits. A subunit structure was found in both X and Y cells, with an average number of subunits per receptive-field center of approximately 2.9 in X cells and approximately 4.6 in Y cells. In X cells these subunits may correspond to individual cone bipolar inputs. In Y cells, the subunits may reflect the structure of the dendritic tree. The observation of the subunit structure of the receptive-field center, in conjunction with manipulation of the retinal wiring through pharmacological intervention, may provide a new tool for probing the circuitry of the retina.

Keywords

Retinal ganglion cellsLateral geniculate nucleus
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 6 , Issue 6 , June 1991 , pp. 621 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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