Duffy Kevin R, Hubel David H
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Life Sciences Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4J1.
Vision Res. 2007 Sep;47(19):2569-74. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2007.06.009. Epub 2007 Aug 3.
Knowledge of the physiology of the primate visual cortex (area V-1) comes mostly from studies done in photopic conditions, in which retinal cones are active and rods play little or no part. Conflicting results have come from research into the effects of dark adaptation on receptive field organization of cells in the retina and the lateral geniculate nucleus. These studies claim either that the effect of the surround disappears with dark adaptation or that it does not. The current study has as its objective a comparison of responses of V-1 cells in awake-alert macaque monkeys under conditions of light and dark adaptation. We reasoned that basic receptive field properties of V-1 cells such as orientation selectivity, direction selectivity, and end-stopping should be preserved in scotopic conditions if the receptive field organization of antecedent cells is maintained in dim light. Our results indicate that dark adaptation does not alter basic V-1 receptive field characteristics such as selectivity for orientation, direction, and bar length.
灵长类动物视觉皮层（V1区）的生理学知识大多来自于明视觉条件下进行的研究，在这种条件下，视网膜视锥细胞活跃，视杆细胞几乎不起作用或不起作用。关于暗适应对视网膜和外侧膝状体细胞感受野组织的影响的研究得出了相互矛盾的结果。这些研究要么声称随着暗适应，周围环境的影响消失了，要么声称没有消失。当前的研究旨在比较清醒警觉的猕猴在明适应和暗适应条件下V1区细胞的反应。我们推断，如果先前细胞的感受野组织在暗光下得以维持，那么V1区细胞的基本感受野特性，如方向选择性、方向选择性和终端抑制，在暗视觉条件下应该会保留下来。我们的结果表明，暗适应不会改变V1区基本的感受野特征，如对方向、方向和条长度的选择性。
