Quantitative studies of single-cell properties in monkey striate cortex. V. Multivariate statistical analyses and models

Abstract

1. Several statistical analyses were performed on 205 S-type and CX-type cells which had been completely analyzed on 12 response variables: orientation tuning, end stopping, spontaneous activity, response variability, direction selectivity, contrast selectivity for flashed or moving stimuli, selectivity for interaction of contrast and direction of stimulus movement, spatial-frequency selectivity, spatial separation of subfields responding to light increment of light decrement, sustained/transient response to flash, receptive-field size, and ocular dominance. 2. Correlation of these variables showed that within any cell group, these response variables vary independently. 3. A multivariate discriminant analysis showed that orientation specificity, receptive-field size, interaction of direction and contrast specificity ocular dominance, and spontaneous activity, taken together can adequately assign cells into the S-type or CX-type subgroups. 4. Various models of visual cortex are examined in view of the findings reported here and in the previous papers of this series, which suggest that a) orientation and direction selectivities are produced by separate neural mechanisms, b) there may be hierarchy among simple (S type) cells, and c) complex (CX-type) cells appear to receive a prominent S-type cell input.