Geometrical illusions and the response of neurones in the cat's visual cortex to angle patterns

• Published in: The Journal of physiology 1971-03, Vol.213 (3), p.599-616
• Main Authors: Burns, B.D, Pritchard, R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action Potentials; animal science; Animals; Cats; Humans; Illusions; Neurons - physiology; Retina - physiology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual Fields; zoology
• ISSN: 0022-3751; 1469-7793
• DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.1971.sp009403

1. This report describes the responses of thirty-six single neurones in the primary visual area of the cat's neurologically isolated and unanaesthetized forebrain, to movements of thin white lines across the visual field. The experiments were designed to record the effects upon the response to a single test line of an added line , which was either parallel to the test line or joined it, making an angle-pattern of 30°. Unit responses were measured in terms of the peak probability of firing derived from a post-stimulus histogram. 2. All of the cortical neurones tested exhibited a preferred orientation for stimulation by the test line, i.e. an orientation of the line which produced a maximal response when the line passed through the centre of the unit's receptive field. 3. There was no evidence that the orientation of a single test line preferred by cortical neurones was different from that preferred by the same cell when excited by an angle pattern, one arm of which was the original test line. 4. The position of a test line (with preferred orientation) in the visual field that produced a maximal response from cortical neurones, was not always the same as the position for maximal response, when a second line was added to make either an angle pattern or to make a pattern of two parallel lines. 5. Where the two lines of these patterns were close together and separated by less than the radius of the receptive field, the position for maximal response to the test line was shifted towards the added line. Where the two lines were further apart than this but separated by less than a receptive field diameter, the optimal position for the test line was displaced away from the added line. 6. Some evidence was found of a lateral inhibition in the visual system, sufficient to account for the displacements described in paragraphs 4 and 5 above. 7. It is concluded that the tip of an angle pattern of 30° produces a distorted cortical image within the primary visual area. 8. This neural distortion of sensory information seems adequate to explain the well known illusions of orientation that are associated with human perception of patterns containing acute angles.