Binocular depth discrimination and the nasotemporal division

Abstract

1. If classical partial decussation exactly segregates the projections of right and left hemi-retinae on to the two optic tracts, the images of an object in central vision, nearer or further than the fixation point, should project to separate hemispheres. This would prevent the encoding of retinal disparity by binocularly driven neurones of the visual cortex.2. It is proposed that there is a central vertical strip of retina in each eye which is represented in both hemispheres. The angular width of this strip should be exactly one half the actual range of horizontal disparities of binocular receptive fields near the central vertical meridian.3. By recording from single neurones in the area 17/18 region in both hemispheres of a cat, it was found that there is such a strip of bilateral projection. The centres of receptive fields for units from the two hemispheres overlap in the middle of the visual field by about 1.5 degrees and the S.D. of the distribution is about 0.5 degrees .4. The horizontal disparities of the centres of binocular receptive fields were measured for samples of units representing different parts of the visual field. The range of horizontal disparity for fields near the area centralis is about 2.3 degrees , the S.D. of the distribution about 0.9 degrees . The proposed relationship between bilateral projection and disparity coding is thus confirmed.5. The origin of the bilateral projection is a matter of speculation, but in the cat some of it is almost certainly due to imprecision in the nature of the nasotemporal division of optic nerve fibres at the optic chiasma. A case can be made, however, that the overlap is partly due to connexions through the corpus callosum between the two occipital lobes.6. Evidence for the importance of the callosal pathway in man is drawn from the effects on stereopsis of section of the chiasma and the callosum.