Representation of spatial frequency and orientation in the cat visual cortex

R.M. Everson, A.K. Prashanth, B.W. Knight, L. Sirovich and E. Kaplan

Abstract

Knowledge of the response of the primary visual cortex to the various spatial frequencies and orientations in the visual scene should help us understand the principles by which the brain recognizes patterns. Current information about the cortical layout of spatial frequency response is still incomplete because of difficulties in recording and interpreting adequate data. Here we report results from a study of the cat primary visual cortex, in which we employed a new image-analy sis method that allows improved separation of signal from noise, and which we used to examine the neuro-optical response of the primary visual cortex to sine-grating visual stimuli over a range of orientations and spatial frequencies.

We found that: 1) the optical responses to all orientations and spatial frequencies were well approximated by weighted sums of only two pairs of "basis" pictures, one pair for orientation and a different pair for spatial frequency; 2) the weightings of the two pictures in each pair were in approximate quadrature with one another; 3) our spatial frequency data reveal a cortical map that continuously assigns different optimal spatial frequency responses to different cortical locations over the entire spatial frequency range.

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