A new approach to the study of binocular interaction in visual cortex: normal and monocularly deprived cats.

Retinal disparity sensitivity was examined for cells in areas 17 and 18 of the cat's visual cortex. As a stimulus, we used drifting sinusoidal gratings which were spatially phase-shifted in one eye with respect to the other. The gratings were of high contrast (80%) and optimal values of spatial and temporal frequencies and orientations were used. In the normal cat cortex, binocular cells in areas 17 and 18 were all sensitive to phase shifts, but only minimal effects were observed for monocular cells. Recordings were also made from monocularly deprived cats, but no binocular influence was found from the silent eye.