Neural interactions of two moving patterns in the direction and orientation domain in the complex cells of cat's visual cortex

Abstract

An examination was made of the responses of complex cells in cat's striate cortex to a textured (nonoriented) stimulus moving in the preferred direction, superimposed upon either a textured or a grating stimulus (oriented) that was moved in different directions. The cell discharges elicited by the textured stimulus moving in the preferred direction were reduced by the textured stimulus moving in nonpreferred directions, and increased when moved in the preferred direction. A grating moving in nonpreferred directions showed similar inhibitory effects on the responses to a textured stimulus moving in the preferred direction. Neural processing for directional movement is, therefore, affected by other neural processing for directional movement, and still more by that for orientation.