VISUAL RECEPTIVE-FIELDS OF NEURONS IN PRIMARY VISUAL-CORTEX (V1) MOVEIN-SPACE WITH THE EYE-MOVEMENTS OF FIXATION

We tested the hypothesis that receptive field (RF) locations of visual cortex cells maintain a fixed location on the retina and move in spac e with movements of the eye, Responses to a bar swept across the RF we re recorded from 29 neurons in V1 (26) and V2 (3) of alert monkeys whi le precisely monitoring the eye movements of fixation There was a tigh t correlation and a near unity ratio between eye position and RF posit ion, This implies that RFs of V1 neurons and at least some V2 neurons are fixed to specific retinal locations, rather than being shifted on the retina by attention-controlled mechanisms. V1 neurons thus differ from those polysensory neurons whose RF locations on the retina are dy namically altered to maintain a desired position in space. Copyright ( C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd