Cells responding to changing image size and disparity in the cortex of the rhesus monkey

Abstract

1. The cells of the cortex of the posterior bank of the superior temporal sulcus of the monkey appear to be specialized to signal motion in the visual field. In this paper, cells in this cortical area capable of signalling motion towards or away from the animal are described.2. Two such types of cell were encountered. One type, the opposed movement complex and opposed movement hypercomplex cells, responded to two edges at a given orientation moving towards or away from each other within the receptive fields. These cells were driven either monocularly or binocularly, but when binocularly driven the cells responded in an identical manner to stimulation of each eye, thus suggesting that such cells must receive a double, and opposed, input from each eye. The other type of cell, always binocularly driven, responded to movement in opposite directions on the two retinas, thus suggesting that such cells must receive diametrically opposite connexions from the two eyes.3. Long penetrations made to study the manner in which such cells were grouped together in the cortex revealed that they were arranged in small groups or clusters, separated from each other by the common directionally selective cells so prominently present in this area. Thus, cells with one type of wiring mechanism were separated from each other by cells receiving another, and more common, type of anatomical wiring.