Redies C, Crook J M, Creutzfeldt O D
Exp Brain Res. 1986;61(3):469-81. doi: 10.1007/BF00237572.
We investigated responses of neurones in cortical areas 17 and 18 and in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the cat to a phase shift in a moving line pattern forming a border without a luminance gradient ("subjective contour"). In both areas 17 and 18, S cells and B cells respond only slightly or not at all along the phase shift while C cells respond strongly. The response of C cells is strongest for line patterns with medium line separation and decreases with smaller and larger separation. In the dLGN the relative magnitude of neuronal responses along a phase shift is similar to that of C cells. However, C cells respond uniformly along the entire phase shift, whereas geniculate cells merely respond to individual line ends along the phase shift. In addition we compared responses along a phase shift and those to a luminance gradient formed by a dotted line whose dots were separated by the same distance as the line ends along the phase shift. S cells and B cells respond preferentially to dotted lines whereas C cells and geniculate cells respond equally well along both phase shifts and dotted lines. Possible explanations for these results in terms of receptive field structure and differences in inhibitory input to the cells are discussed. Differential neurone responses may account for the perceptual distinctness of the contours with and without luminance gradients.
我们研究了猫的17区和18区皮层以及背外侧膝状核（dLGN）中的神经元对移动线条图案中的相位偏移的反应，该图案形成了一个没有亮度梯度的边界（“主观轮廓”）。在17区和18区中，S细胞和B细胞在相位偏移处仅产生轻微反应或根本不产生反应，而C细胞则产生强烈反应。对于中等线间距的线条图案，C细胞的反应最强，而对于较小和较大的线间距，反应则减弱。在dLGN中，沿着相位偏移的神经元反应的相对幅度与C细胞相似。然而，C细胞在整个相位偏移中反应均匀，而膝状细胞仅对沿着相位偏移的单个线端产生反应。此外，我们比较了沿着相位偏移的反应和对由虚线形成的亮度梯度的反应，该虚线的点之间的距离与沿着相位偏移的线端之间的距离相同。S细胞和B细胞优先对虚线产生反应，而C细胞和膝状细胞在相位偏移和虚线处的反应同样良好。我们讨论了根据感受野结构和细胞抑制性输入差异对这些结果的可能解释。神经元的不同反应可能解释了有亮度梯度和无亮度梯度轮廓在感知上的差异。
