RECEPTIVE FIELDS OF CELLS IN STRIATE CORTEX OF VERY YOUNG, VISUALLY INEXPERIENCED KITTENS

Abstract

Responses of single cells to visual stimuli were studied in the striate cortex of very young kitten. Two animals, aged 8 and 16 days, had no previous exposure to patterned stimuli. Responses of cortical cells in these animals were strikingly similar to those of adult cats. Fields were "simple" or "complex", with a clear receptive-field orientation. Cells with similar orientations appeared to be grouped in columnar regions. The majority of cells were driven by the two eyes, with patterns of binocular interaction that were similar to those in the adult. Compared with the mature cat, cells responded somewhat more sluggishly to visual stimuli, and receptive-field orientations tended to be not quite so well defined. In two other kittens, one monocularly deprived by translucent occluder from birth for 19 days, the other a normal 20-day-old, responses to patterned stimulation of either eye were entirely normal by adult standards. It is concluded that many of the connections responsible for the highly organized behavior of cells in the striate cortex must be present in birth or within a few days of it, even in the absence of patterned visual experience.