Responses of area 17 neurons in cats binocularly deprived by rearing in hoods

Abstract

Responses of single units of area 17 were recorded in cats binocularly deprived by rearing in hoods. Neurons were recorded in pairs or in three-neuron groups with multichannel microelectrodes. Of 131 units recorded 22 percent were not visually excitable. The rest were predominantly monocularly driven. Response strength defined as the PST peak-to-background ratio was lower than 10 in 90 percent of cells. The orientation selectivity defined as the ratio of response strengths for the preferred and null stimulus orientations was lower than 5 in 79 percent of neurons. Directional selectivity was detected in 22 percent of units. The aim of this paper is to show that, considering the electrophysiological effects in cortica1 area 17, rearing in hoods can be used instead of eyelid suturing. This paper describes the standard parameters of units that were subsequently used for the analysis of interneuronal connectivity in visually deprived cortex (10).