Effects of exposure to lines of one or two orientations on different cell types in striate cortex of cat.

We raised cats using goggles to control early visual exposure (stripe-rearing). Four conditions were used: (a), both eyes exposed to 0 degrees lines, (b), both eyes exposed to 90 degree lines, (c), one eye exposed to 45 degree lines, the other to 135 degree lines, (d), one eye exposed to 0 degree lines, the other to 90 degree lines. At the completion of the rearing, we recorded extracellularly from single cells in striate cortex (area 17) of these animals; circular statistics were used to analyse the distribution of the orientation preferences of neurones recorded. Exposure to either one or two stimulus orientations produced a significant bias in the distribution of the orientation preferences of cells recorded. We found no more non-selective cells in cats exposed to one orientation (15%) than in cats exposed to two orientations (14%). We found about the same mean proportion of binocular cells in cats exposed to one orientation (27%) as in cats exposed to two orientations (24%). Cells were comparable in orientation selectivity in cats exposed to one orientation (mean half-width at half-height = 37 degrees) and in cats exposed to two orientations (mean half-width at half-height = 34 degrees). The effects of the rearing depended upon the receptive field properties of the cells. For cells with narrow receptive fields and low cut-off velocities, the rearing produced no bias in the distribution of the orientation preferences; for all other groups of cells the rearing produced a bias toward the exposed orientation. In addition, the cells with narrow receptive fields and low cut-off velocities were more finely tuned for orientation than the remaining cells. We conclude that there are cell types in the striate cortex of the cat which differ in their susceptibility to the effects of stripe-rearing; these cell types can be discriminated on the basis of their physiological characteristics. We can compare these cell types with morphologically identified cell types that also differ in their susceptibility to the effects of stripe-rearing.