Spatial mapping of monkey V1 cells with pure color and luminance stimuli.

We recorded the responses of single macaque striate cortical cells to color-varying and luminance-varying patterns. We show that (a) the vast majority of primate striate cells respond to pure color stimuli, in addition to responding to luminance-varying stimuli (b) in general, simple cells are color-selective whereas complex cells respond to multiple color regions, (c) most cortical cells show bandpass spatial frequency tuning to pure color-varying gratings, with various cells tuned to each of a wide range of spatial frequencies and (d) the peak spatial frequency and bandwidth of most striate cells is the same for color as for luminance-varying gratings; when they differ, cells tend to be more broadly tuned and peak at lower spatial frequencies for color (e) complex cells, on the average, respond to higher spatial frequencies than do simple cells.