Non-stationarity of ocular dominance in cat striate cortex

Abstract

Interocular relationships, based on monocular directional tuning curves derived simultaneously for bar and for texture motion interleaved, are described for complex cells in the lightly-anaesthetised feline striate cortex. The results confirm earlier reports of stimulus-dependent differences in ocular dominance (Hammond 1979a, b) and demonstrate that "ocular-dominance" may be time-dependent and influenced by secondary stimulus characteristics including velocity of motion. Temporal and apparently spontaneous shifts in ocular dominance may take place other than in parallel for different classes of stimuli and may even occur simultaneously but in opposite directions. Thus absolute shifts in eye preference, as well as relative shifts between differing stimuli, must both occur with time, perhaps as the result of non-visual influences. The results present a challenge to strategies classically employed in defining cortical ocular dominance.