Experience-dependent maturation of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the cell receptive fields in the kitten visual cortex.

The development of contrast sensitivity to spatial and temporal frequencies was studied in the visual cortex of 6-week-old kittens reared from birth in three conditions: normal, dark-reared (DR) and dark-reared after 6 h of visual experience. Receptive fields of cells recorded in area 17 were quantitatively analysed using drifting sine-wave gratings. Compared to the low values obtained in the DR kittens, we observed after 6 h of visual experience: (1) an adult-like detection of higher spatial frequencies, (2) an increase of contrast sensitivity at low temporal frequencies; (3) a shift of the cell optimum towards 3 Hz, all values close to the normal ones. Unlike the spatial frequency selectivity, contrast sensitivity and detection of higher temporal frequencies continue to develop with age and visual experience.