Response properties of nearby neurons in cat primary visual cortex

In the primary visual cortex of cat and monkey, the tuning preferences of neurons with respect to stimulus parameters like orientation or spatial frequency vary smoothly across the cortical surface and cells with common properties are arranged in radial columns. This functional architecture predicts that the response characteristics of adjacent single neurons will be the same. In this study we set out to determine what ‘the same’ means by recording simultaneously from 2 to 4 neighboring neurons in cat primary visual cortex. We compare the cells’ tuning preferences and the fine temporal structures of their spike discharges in response to various stimuli including simple gratings as well as natural movie scenes. As our results so far show considerable dissimilarities in the response characteristics of neighboring neurons, we furthermore want to understand the relation of the responses of single cells to the collective activity of the local neural population reflected by the local field potential (LFP).