[Responses of pulvinar neurons in cats to presentation of moving visual stimuli].

Responses of 114 pulvinar neurons to stimulation by moving light spots were studied. Most neurons (79) displayed background activity, the mean frequency of discharges being about 10-25 imp/s. 35 neurons showed no background activity, 41 neurons responded only to the movement of black stimuli, the rest being excited either by black or by light stimulus. The neurons were divided into two groups: those sensitive to the movement direction and those responding to two opposite directions of the movement by the equal numbers of discharges. A small number of neurons was observed responding to two opposite directions by regular bursts of spikes differently distributed in time (multimodal responses). Some neurons changed their nondirectional responses to the direction-sensitive ones after modifying the dimensions of the light spot.