PSY 368 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Receptive Field, Visual Cortex, David H. Hubel
29 Mar 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Receptive fields of neurons in the visual cortex. Cells with side-by-side receptive fields are called simple cortical cells. A cell with this receptive field would respond best to vertical bars. A vertical bar that illuminates only the excitatory area causes high firing, but as the bar is tilted so the inhibitory area is illuminated, firing decreases. The relationship between orientation and firing is indicated by a neuron"s orientation tuning curve, which is determined by measuring the responses of a simple cortical cell to bars with different orientations. Many of the cells encountered in the striate cortex and nearby visual areas did not respond to small spots of light. As with simple cells, a particular neuron had a preferred orientation. Hubel and wiesel discovered that many cortical neurons respond best to moving barlike stimuli with specific orientations. Complex cells, like simple cells, respond best to bars of a particular orientation.
