Activity of the striate cortex cells during saccadic eye movements of the alert cat.

Neuronal activity in the striate cortex was studied during eye movements of alert cats under reinforcement of eye movements with rewards of water. Striate cells were differentiated into two groups exhibiting contrasting activities during and at intermissions of saccadic eye movements made in the presence of a visual pattern: (1) saccade-excited (SE) cells (207/271) that were excited during saccadic eye movements and were much less active at intermissions; and (2) saccade-depressed (SD) cells (55/271) that were depressed during eye movements and were strongly active at intermissions. Under suppression of eye movements by retrobulbar paralysis or by withdrawal of the rewards, most SE-cells (89/104) exhibited photic responsiveness characteristic of "complex" cells in the anesthetized cat, and almost all SD-cells (23/26) that of "simple" cells. Therefore, it is likely that the two major neuronal populations in the striate cortex provide parallel channels of visual information which are gated in an alternative way during eye movements.